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Portland art blog + news + exhibition reviews + galleries + contemporary northwest art
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Friday 03.23.12 Free hours and an Avery depiction of Rothko First of all, everyone in Portland should know that tonight from
5-8 PM the Portland Art Museum will be open free of charge. It's a lovely
day and likely a lovely night out on the town to check out the Rothko Retrospective,
Joseph Beuys, John Frame etc. What's more the Portland Art Museum has more Rothko
on display than already advertised (I know how is that possible?).
 Milton Avery, Bathers Coney Island (1934) in the Portland Art Museum's collection Here is how... ever since I moved to Portland in 1999 I noticed a rather striking Milton Avery in PAM's collection called Bathers, Coney Island (1934). It is a good painting for an Avery beach scene, which are generally not regarded as highly as a more formal Avery portrait or landscape. regardless, what instantly got my attention was the large figure in the foreground with a green visor. Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 23, 2012 at 13:12 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 02.29.12 Portland's relationship to Rothko 
Rothko holding untitled (1954) ''I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is something very grandiose and pompous. . . .The reason I paint them however. . . is precisely because I want to be intimate and human.'' Mark Rothko 1951 To say that Mark Rothko haunts Portland's collective civic psyche is perhaps an overstatement but there is a lot of evidence to the contrary (especially if one is sensitive to such things). This is partly because Portland as a city has bucked the predominant wisdom of the second half of the 20th century (we are pro approachable scale, anti corporate greed), just as its most famous son was. Portland is a city of shopkeepers rather than corporations as well as parks and public transportation, three things Rothko was also quite fond of. Rothko worked for his uncle, a shopkeeper and he painted subways, bridges and aggregate streets full of the masses. In short he was interested in the machine of civilization but sought a personal response amidst the modern impersonal grind. ... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on February 29, 2012 at 6:32 | Comments (0) PermalinkHistory on the Kaufman Rothkowitz on display at PAM  Mark Rothko Beach Scene, ca. 1928 Oil on canvas board 14.5 x 16 in. Reed College Art Collection Kaufman Memorial Collection Gift of Louis and Annette Kaufman Mark Rothko's family emigrated from Russia to Portland in 1913. Home life was intellectually rich and Rothko was fluent in Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, and English by the time he attended Lincoln High School with Louis Kaufman, graduating with honors in three years. In 1921 Rothko was awarded a scholarship to Yale, but found Yale elitist and conservative. In response, Rothko and fellow student Aaron Director published the satirical review The Yale Saturday Evening Pest. Rothko withdrew from Yale his second year... (more) Posted by Guest on February 29, 2012 at 6:17 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 12.27.11 Bringing Barr  Alfred Barr Jr. It's been seventy-five years since Alfred H. Barr Jr.’s exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art. If you go to any museum that has modern art, his influence is visible in the organization and artists selected. Throughout the museum and curatorial world Barr’s shows and clout are controversial topics - and should be. Why should it be controversial? Anyone that has been that successful in creating a paradigm that still exists today has to be examined. It also happens that the paradigm that Barr created is the common understanding of modernism. On the one hand, it is not possible for everyone to have such clarity of thought on such new and difficult subjects, and on the other if there were a first rule of modernism, it would be to overturn the rules of your forefathers. So lets take a look at how Cubism and Abstract Art interacts with the notion of modernism and the period. Hindsight makes the past clear. There is one caveat about modernism that is often overlooked: every modernist statement was active within a time period where all these manifestos, artists’ statements and methods of science and industry were emphatic, pointed, aggressive, unquestionable, didactic - something to... (more) Posted by Alex Rauch on December 27, 2011 at 14:44 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 11.29.11 Alfredo Jaar and Carsten Holler  Carsten Holler's Double Light Corner (2011), Animal Group (2011) and Aquarium (1996) at the New Museum (photo Jeff Jahn) It isn't often that I write about programmatic archetypal curatorial strategies used in art exhibitions but two recent experiences; visiting Carsten Holler's Experience retrospective at the New Museum and Alfredo Jaar's talk "It is Difficult" sponsored by OCAC raise questions about the role of the artist and institution as well as how they ultimately interface with their viewers. 
Alfredo Jaar speaking in Portland October 14th (photo Jeff Jahn) Though Holler and Jaar couldn't be more different, both highlight the way the art experience is attenuated by how the artist/institution divide is negotiated (Jaar is very selective and insists on carte blanche). True, all art exhibitions represent a kind of experience but some are intended primarily as such... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on November 29, 2011 at 14:47 | Comments (0) PermalinkWednesday 09.07.11 In preparation for Jesse Sugarmann's "Lido (The Pride Is Back)" at TBA  The original Hawthorne Streetcar There was a time when trolley cars and electric trains ruled the cityscape. Then, with the help of Standard Oil, Firestone Tire and other companies, General Motors went on a buying spree to purchase many of those transit systems and replace them with their own buses. To compete with Ford's Model T, GM bought up a lot of other car manufacturers (including making an early bid for Ford) in order to offer a variety of models and colors. So, when given the choice between riding in something crowded and stinky or something roomy, shiny and speedy, what followed (if not in as a direct line as this brief synopsis indicates) was our fascination with all things cars. Granted, GM didn't manage this feat of cultural obsession single-handedly. Cars were more freeing, and, one might argue... (more) Posted by Patrick Collier on September 07, 2011 at 22:17 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 07.21.11 Surveying Northwest Regional Surveys Part II 
Whenever several institutional curators get together to talk about regional art and curating it, the discussion nearly always turns out the same (a discussion of familiar institutional minutiae and curatorial preferences)... so I avoid them. Well, except when I sit on them like I did in 2008 on OPB or 2003 for Core Sample with Michael Darling (then still at MoCA), Elizabeth Brown (The Henry), Randy Gragg (then at the Oregonian), Jane Beebe (PDX Contemporary) and myself. The point I made for this panel (by getting up from the genial table and walking with the mic) was that Portland was in a state of change and upheaval and any show that didn't address that energy wasn't relevant. It wasn't a brilliant statement simply a true one that in hindsight has been validated on an international level... (much more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 21, 2011 at 13:13 | Comments (0) PermalinkForest for the Tree Farm (Part I) 
PAM hosted a panel discussion July 17th with the title "Northwest Awards & Biennials." The short blurb on PAM's website read: Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson moderates a lively discussion about Northwest art and how best to recognize the art and artists of the region. This followed a series of Tweets I had a couple weeks prior with @pamcollections about this topic... (more) Posted by Patrick Collier on July 21, 2011 at 12:32 | Comments (1) PermalinkFriday 07.15.11 A Segal at the Met's revival  Arthur Segal's wonderful and still fresh Strasse auf Helgoland II (1924) at the Met. I noted the painting 2 years ago but Arthur Segal's Strasse auf Helgoland II is enjoying a bit of a revival with a shout out from Roberta Smith. In sychonicity, others like Minus Space's Matthew Deleget have just conducted some private and social media conversations about this gem from 1924 as well. I was thinking about it last week myself as one of my favorite things in The Metropolitan Museum. Besides the obvious (that we all have impeccable taste) why the revival? For me it is partly it's context within... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on July 15, 2011 at 13:48 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 04.22.11 Plethora Lucida  Jim Neidhardt at Blackfish (install photo Jeff Jahn) Next month is National Photography Month, but Portland, over-lapping like a temporal Rule of Thirds into May, has jumped the gun with “Photolucida.” A large number of area galleries are participating, and it is safe to say that there is a little something for every taste; and given the growing popularity of photography, there should be a bump in attendance, and perhaps in sales. However... (more) Posted by Patrick Collier on April 22, 2011 at 10:36 | Comments (1) PermalinkWednesday 12.29.10 Final Thoughts on 2010: First Impressions  10,000 artists at Worksound by Jim Neidhardt For December’s First Friday, I dropped in at Worksound to see Jim Neidhardt’s installation, 10,000 Artists. The gallery had just opened for the evening, and only the gallery director, Modou Dieng, Neidhardt and a couple of the artist’s friends were in attendance. The installation consists of a paper banner stapled along all of the walls in the gallery. The paper is inscribed with the names... Posted by Patrick Collier on December 29, 2010 at 11:50 | Comments (9) PermalinkSaturday 09.04.10 R. Crumb and the larger Portland comix community by Mariel DeLacy “When I hear old music, its one of the few times I have a kind of looove
for humanity. You hear the best part of the soul of the common people. You know
– It’s their way of expressing their connection to eternity or whatever
you want to call it...” -Robert Crumb from Terry Zwigoff’s documentary, Crumb.
 R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis at the Portland Art Museum and places that sell comic books Robert Crumb’s fans may have said the same thing about his cartoons in the 1960s and 1970s capturing the “spirit of the times.” Reverend Ivan Stang thrived off of Crumb’s common people soul expressed through his crude depictions of women, black people, or hippies that essentially evoked... (more) 
Kaebel Hashitani at Sequential Gallery (photo Jeff Jahn) Posted by Guest on September 04, 2010 at 13:53 | Comments (0) PermalinkSunday 08.01.10 Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing at PAM The wall drawings of Sol LeWitt, though dated by more than a decade, still resonate with the current artistic community. Sol LeWitt was a courageous artist with powerful insights as to both the workings and processes of art. He questioned drawing, painting, and sculpture unabashedly and directly with explorations of simple geometric form, color, and line. He also had the foresight to create work that would continue to spawn beyond his own lifespan, leaving us with gifts like Wall Drawing #304 currently on view at the Portland Art Museum.
 Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #304 ...(more) Posted by Jascha Owens on August 01, 2010 at 15:40 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 06.28.10 Contemplating the furniture 
Jessica Jackson Hutchins' Love Seat Couple I've noticed a thread of furniture art in Portland over the last decade.. and while it's by no means unique (artists like Robert Rauschenbeg, Rachel Harrison, Donald Judd, Anne Hamilton, Roy Mc Makin, Damien Hirst, Carol Bove, Inigo Manglano Ovalle, Kiki Smith, Tom Sachs, Vito Acconci, Ed Keinholz, Jessica Stockholder etc. all use/design furniture) it bears taking a closer look... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 28, 2010 at 13:14 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 05.06.10 Donald Judd... now Exhibition essay: Donald Judd, White Box at The University of Oregon Portland by Jeff Jahn
Suddenly and without the prompt of a recent high profile major museum exhibition in the United States, the work of the preeminent artist Donald Judd (1928-1994) has enjoyed renewed interest amongst the most recent generations of artists. Reactions to his influence are everywhere in art, architecture and design schools today. So much so that if a clean box that avoids illusion or attention getting details by being well-made of metal, Plexiglas or douglas fir is present, so is Judd's legacy. The pity is that ubiquity extends a pervasively superficial understanding of Judd. 
Judd Art (c) Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, NYC (photo: Jeff Jahn) In the support of the conference Donald Judd Delegated Fabrication this exhibition is the first ever to look at Judd's process by paring major works with drawings by Judd for fabricators, production drawings by fabricators and other ephemera.... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 06, 2010 at 13:12 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 03.19.10 Is the Columbia River Crossing Doomed? In 2008 I was the first critic to call
for a design competition for the Columbia River Crossing and publicly argued
that the project had gone astray by becoming a blind man's elephant of conflicting
interests without a sufficiently talented architect capable of creating a compellingly cohesive
design... which they could then sell back to the public. Today the project is that
same quagmire involving the same design by committee engineers and an architecture
firm that merely makes cheap, mostly cheesy aesthetic gestures.
There hasnt been much critique in the generalist publications because the Oregonian does not have a proper staff architecture critic and they have utterly dropped the ball with horrible taglines like, "Can we afford Pretty?" when in fact the issue is more properly framed as a leaderless project in need of a head... ie a great architect. Sadly, the O has made themselves inconsequential to this very important discussion. Anyone with any real experience knows that the project wont get built without a serious design because this current franken-design doesn't make an arguement for itself. Previously I've described the design as similar to The Homer. What's more, Zaha Hadid has shown how the design could look and function great without extra tall design elements and Mayor Sam Adams noticed. 
Zaha Hadid's Shiekh Zayed Bridge, excellent without tall structural elements Simply put the current design team is out of their league because they are simply responding to pressures rather than the world class solutions this project demands (a rethink is crucial right now but it will take world class minds). Meanwhile Governors Ted Kulongoski and Christine Gregoire have simply ignored the crucial question of a design that people will get behind. The project's complexity requires a great architect to come up a with a convincing design that creates a consensus... that takes innovation and that is something which usually comes from top talent. A world class architect would then become the salesman, something none of the politicians have the clout or political will to do. Why have all of the designs originated from Vancouver Washington with additions from Tallahassee Florida? Also, the new bridge IS needed, an 8.8 earthquake like the one Chile just experienced... (more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on March 19, 2010 at 12:20 | Comments (0) PermalinkFriday 02.26.10 Terry Winters at Reed College  Terry Winters speaking at Reed College When you walk into the excellent exhibition of recent prints by Terry Winters at Reed College's Cooley Gallery, you are confronted by a remarkably consistent body of work that is the product of both a sustained rigor and an unflinching critical thought. Winters's work is a complex, evolving fusion of material and image while refusing to allow itself to be only defined as one or the other. His recent work often includes a series of self-generating forms that he describes as knots. The knots often intertwine with one another so that positive and negative space merge to create new kinds of forms with are in turn explored and expanded with additional layers of information. These forms serve as a guide to the pictorial and critical transformations that guide the intent behind most of the prints in the exhibition... (more) Posted by Arcy Douglass on February 26, 2010 at 9:00 | Comments (15) PermalinkTuesday 10.27.09 Taking Full Stock of the Portland art scene, Part I "The goal of our intellectual efforts cannot be a static, polished possession...In our many efforts toward knowledge, science, math, logic as in life itself, it is the process, not the terminus, that should concern us - if we are wise." Bruce Aune Rationalism, Empiricism, and Pragmatism The fall season is in full swing, I've been here a little over a decade now and PORT is heading towards its 5th anniversary, so it seems like an opportune time to take full stock of the development of the Portland art scene. Part I is general and interrelated (nine ways to improve, Portland as a model city, and our recent past). Part II will be more specific, discussing artists - young, mid-career and old - different types of institutions, etc.  Broadcast at Lewis and Clark College (Dara Birnbaum's Hostage, 1994, in background)  Rose McCormick's Grande Ronde concluded NAAU's Couture series last weekend There have been many excellent shows this season so far, including Rose McCormick's Grand Ronde, Broadcast at Lewis & Clark, Tom Cramer at Laura Russo, Jesse Hayward & Ethan Rose at TBA, Jordan Tull at Littlefield, Vanessa Renwick at Blue Sky, Ryan Pierce at Elizabeth Leach, and Processions at PSU, plus China Design Now and Raphael's Valeta at the Portland Art Museum. Portland definitely has a strong scene by anyone's standards, but it's not without its challenges. Only recently have our two top visual arts institutions (PAM and PNCA) embarked on serious campaigns with major donor education components. With PNCA celebrating its centennial this month, it's important to remember that they were the same entity a mere decade and a half ago and that only recently have the two organizations concentrated heavily on endowments and legacy gifts. The situation reminds me of the odd and sometimes beautiful combination of youth and age I come across in Portland. Now we seem to be at a tipping point where Portland could be more than just a great place for artists and become a better place for art. It's a subtle distinction that everyone should be considering..... (much more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on October 27, 2009 at 14:13 | Comments (2) PermalinkWednesday 06.17.09 Rothko's Portland  The view from SW Terwilliger Boulevard looking east toward Mt. Hood in the neighborhood in which Rothko spent most of his time in Portland. "(I spent my) youth in front of the endless space of the landscape of Oregon lying covered by wintery snows, in front of the monumental emptiness that is nothingness and at the same time part of it 'all.'" -Mark Rothko Marcus Rothkowitz arrived in Portland, Oregon in early September 1913 with his sister Sonia and his mother Kate. They had been in the United States for less than a month, having arrived in Brooklyn, New York on August 17, 1913 from Libau, Russia's main emigration port. Marcus, who would later change his name to Mark Rothko, was just a few weeks shy of his eleventh birthday. He was born on September 25, 1903 in Dvinsk and was, with his mother and sister, looking forward to starting a new life with his father, Jacob, and his two older brothers, Albert and Morris in Portland. The family had not been together in nearly three years. Portland marked the end of a long journey. It was a place that this family, like most immigrants, believed that their hard work would pay off and they could start anew. The Rothkowitzes were not alone in Portland. Jacob's brother, Samuel Weinstein, was already here and owned a successful wholesale clothing business called N & S Weinstein. The Weinsteins were important to the Rothkowitzes on both the West and East coasts. When Kate, Sonia and Mark arrived in Brooklyn, their first stop was to visit the Weinsteins in New Haven, Connecticut. It must have been a way for them to recharge their batteries after the long boat trip across the Atlantic and enjoy the comfort of family in an otherwise unfamiliar land. More...  One of the my all time favorite photos of Rothko. If you wanted to know what Portland meant to Rothko, this is it. The photo was taken in 1968 and he his hugging Dorothy Reiter, Morris' daugther and his niece. They both look radiant, happy and absolutely content. The photo is very different than any comparable photo of Rothko taken in New York during the late 1960's. Portland remained a source for him until the end of his life. Image courtesy of the Oregon Jewish Museum. Posted by Arcy Douglass on June 17, 2009 at 9:13 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 06.16.09 John Wesley's Battle of Przemysl at PAM  John Wesley's Battle of Przemysl, 1969, 34 x 96 inches One of my favorite works in the Portland Art Museum's permanent collection is John Wesley's simultaneously hilarious and wickedly dark painting, Battle of Przemysl. It's a sphynx like painting that may or may not be making a strange comment on; military expectations, conformity, homoeroticism, politics, the weird ideals of war, wartime music and historical head scratching all in one neat package with a thick black border. That border is not unlike...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 16, 2009 at 9:12 | Comments (0) PermalinkThursday 04.23.09 On Museums and Users Last night I attended one of the meetings about the integration of the Museum of Contemporary Craft and Pacific Northwest College Craft (PNCA). It was an interesting discussion because it was an honest look at how museums and university galleries address the changing needs of their respective audiences. It is revealing that most museums and galleries now find themselves asking fundamental questions about their existence such as asking what do people want out of the experience of going to a museum? Or what is the best way for museums to leverage their expertise in a changing and dynamic society? In other words, how does a museum stay relevant?
Posted by Arcy Douglass on April 23, 2009 at 14:00 | Comments (2) PermalinkTuesday 03.17.09 The Black Square  Kasimir Malevich, Black Square, 1913 [1914-15] The painted area of the Black Square is reinforced by the square canvas itself. The painted internal space of the square is removed and,at the same time,the painting takes on a three dimensional form by assuming the physical propeties of the canvas that exists in the space of the room. The result is that painting exists not as a window to somewhere else but as physical, tangible presence of the space of the viewer. Malevich created a new type of pictorial space that spoke as much to the space outside the boundaries of the painting as the space contained within it. "A non-objective art, phenomenal art is about seeing-about seeing, "feeling," and determining its aesthetically. Yet it seems every time we get a glimpse of this power of our seeing, we quickly give it away by attributing to it someone or something outside ourselves. We act as if we've seen a mirage or had a visitation; we make a mystique or a religion of it, instead of accepting the responsibility for what it is-that we perceive. It doesn't just happen to us- we make it happen, we participate directly in the forming of that envelope of the world and our being in it, and we do so at every moment of our lives. There is nothing more real, more interesting, more powerful, more informative, more important, or more beautiful" -Robert Irwin, Being and Circumstance: Notes Toward a Conditional Art , 1985 After I wrote in Art and Nature, I realized that there was something else there that placed the idea of process into context. It is the link that connects the artist to the viewer's experience and I think it is intention. What does intention mean? How could that change your experience of art? When Malevich paints a square, it is deliberate. It is something that he knows we are all familiar with. He is using a shape that we are all familiar with to establish a direct connection to the viewer beyond the edges of the painting. It is the vehicle and not the subject. It might not be clear at first glance, but Irwin was right, the subject is the viewer. This is why Maelvich changed what was considered to the potential of painting. The painting exists as much in the space of the room as it does in the boundary of the canvas. Malevich's intention to make art was to establish a direct connection to the viewer's experience of their own awareness. The viewer is the subject of the Black Square.  Robert Irwin, Varese Scrim, 1973 One of Irwin's early scrim pieces and was installed in a dedicated room in Panza's villa in Varese. Like many of the works that we have been discussing, the experience of the work is not the experience of the srim, it is the relationship between the scrim and the space. They work together and are inseparable. Like the zips in Newman's paintings, the scrim defines the room and the room defines the scrim. The scrim is the material but the art is the experience of the entire space. Posted by Arcy Douglass on March 17, 2009 at 7:21 | Comments (0) PermalinkThe Black Square-Conclusion  Robert Irwin, Installation at the Chinati Foundation, 2006-7 The scrims are freestanding in the spaces of the barracks. The frames are exposed so you are more aware of their edges. Some are painted white while others are black. Both challenge and redefine your perception of walking down the rooms. The works can't exist independently of the rooms in which they are placed. More... Posted by Arcy Douglass on March 17, 2009 at 7:20 | Comments (0) PermalinkTuesday 01.13.09 Art and Nature (Or an exploration of the emptiness of form and natural ordering systems)
 Albert Bierstadt, Mount Hood, Oregon 1869, Portland Art Museum. Every time I see this painting I am a little bit surprised, it always reveals a little something more about what it is like to live in the Pacific Northwest. I think that it was painted on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge looking south to Mt. Hood. Like most Bierstadt paintings, he s interested creating a representation of the mountain that might convey a larger truth about the land, or at least as he saw it. "It is quite commonly thought that the intellect is responsible for everything that is made and done. The intellect is a hazard in artwork. I mean, there are so many paintings that have gone down the drain because somebody got an idea in the middle." Agnes Martin in "Thin Gray Line" Vanity Fair, March 1989, p.56 Artists have always tried to find ways of translating and transforming nature in their work. In the Lascaux caves 25,000 years ago, it was the animals that they saw during their hunts. For the Greeks it was the beauty of the human body although I think that they were interested in the ideal of beauty rather than particular shapes of a single, living human being. Still, it was form of beauty and perfection that was based on the expression of natural forms. For painters like Leonardo Da Vinci nature was a system to be studied to make their paintings more true to our experience of daily life. He studied botany, anatomy and hydrodynamics to make his paintings more realistic and accurate of the creative forces of nature. For the best Chinese painters over the last thousand years, the natural world could be re-created in paintings and became a unique refuge where a person could get in touch with the forces of nature and find peace from busy lives. The paintings were never representational of a specific place but were literally formed by the creative forces of nature. A visit to a waterfall or a tall mountain was the direct experience of the contrasting forces of yin and yang by understanding all of the ways that they manifest themselves in nature. For the Chinese, the direct experience of nature, rather than its representation, was proof that we were a part of nature and that we had our own place in the universe.  Hubble Space Telescope,Milky Way Galaxy,2002. This essay has attempted to reframe the terms in which it is possible for an artist to address their relationship to nature. Artists do no have to be satisfied with engaging nature in a superficial way and that it is possible to use some of the deeper systems that nature uses to organize itself to create an experience that might be called art. Posted by Arcy Douglass on January 13, 2009 at 19:45 | Comments (0) PermalinkMonday 11.24.08 Revisiting Michael Heizer's Double Negative  Double Negative in the late afternoon Like most things in life, it always takes you a little longer to find it than you had anticipated. I was driving across the top of Mormon Mesa, outside of Overton , Nevada, looking for Michael Heizer's Double Negative. Double Negative was conceived in 1969 and completed in 1970. Incredibly, Heizer was only 24 years old when it was completed. I had been to Double Negative a couple of times about ten years earlier. I lived in Las Vegas at the time and experiencing the work changed my life. I suppose in some way, I still I am trying to coming grips with what I had experienced during those trips. When Heizer went out to the edge of Mormon Mesa in 1970 his tools were a bulldozer, dynamite, probably a survey kit and a crew talented and brave enough to be able to make his conception a reality. He received funding for the lease of the land and support for the construction costs by the gallery owner Virginia Dwan. At the time the cost of the work was about $9,000. The work itself is two channels cut into opposite sides of the mesa. Each channel is approximately 9 meters deep and 10 meters wide. The western cut is about 230 meters long while the west cut is shorter, 100 meters long. Approximately, 244,800 tons of sand stone and rhyolite were relocated to make the work. The work is so large that there is not really an equivalent in the history of Western Art. It is longer than the Empire State Building is tall. When I was looking for the work and I was examining some of the valleys on the road to Double Negative, I was impressed with the fragility of the edge of the mesa. The edges are, after all, in a constant state of erosion. After the work had been marked, it must have taken an extremely brave person to make the first cut, maybe 6" or a 1' deep, and push it off the edge of the mesa. The drop off is extremely steep. There was no guarantee that the bulldozer would not just the follow the material off the edge of the mesa if the edge had given way and fallen down toward the river below. Everyone must have been holding there breaths because there would have been no way to know if the edge could support the weight of the bulldozer until they tried it. As work progressed it probably got a little easier and any large rocks that could not have been removed by the bulldozer would have been dynamited. After approximately, two weeks the excavations of the cuts were complete and the Heizer's initial conception of the work was complete. More...  Double Negative soon after completion Posted by Arcy Douglass on November 24, 2008 at 10:45 | Comments (2) PermalinkWednesday 07.23.08 The Power of Place This post is a bit of an experiment but I have been thinking a lot about the way a photo can tell a story a about specific time and place. The photograph becomes an embodiement of an idea that is sometimes separate from the work itself. This essay is a study about the way that certain photos become more than just about the visual records of experience that exist in the worlds of art and architecture. At the same time, I would like to add that the photograph undermines any emphasis on any geographical location outside of the field of view of the camera. Images are one of the few things that available to everyone because all you need to have is a camera and access to the internet. The reason that I chose these images in the post is that they all convey a story. They seem to be closer to conveying an idea about a person or work rather simply documenting an experience. The ideas in these photographs seem to me to be essentially about place. A camera is extremely specific, it can only record what is in its field of view. If it is outside the field of view of the lens, it wouldn't be recorded. For me, that means that a camera is essentially about a specific place at a specific moment. The great thing is that that place can be anywhere now and availible to anyone. Everybody has the opportunity to participate. In a world that is becoming increasingly universal, there is still something compelling about the specific. The camera also separates the viewer from the event. The image can be used to convey a specific idea which might be different than the experience of the actual event. This post is probably closer to a slide lecture that happens to be on the internet rather than a normal post. There are plenty of artists with a few architects and architecture thrown in. It is worth noting that a piece of architecture is not easily relocated. Unless people make the effort to visit it, it will only exist for most people as an image. For me that is important lesson for artists. Within the confines of a camera you can create your own world that may or may not have anything to do with where you live on the planet. The camera is a great equalizer. As I was doing research for this post I was surprised that artists and architects have been using images this way since the very beginning.  A self portrait of Brancusi in his studio. The idea behind the photo is the integration of a man and his work. In this photograph he is completely subordinate to his work, his figure barely fills up a third of the image. It is a photograph about the juxtaposition about his sculpture Bird in Space and himself. The rest of the studio comes into focus through our periperal vision and the long exposure also gives the studio an otherworldly light. He is literally one with his work. More... Posted by Arcy Douglass on July 23, 2008 at 12:10 | Comments (8) PermalinkFriday 07.18.08 Disjecta: Rematerializing?  It's Disjecta, again... and again... and again. Long time Portlanders are probably pretty familiar with this promotional routine, and have already formed their opinions. For those of you who don't know the history, PORT takes a look back and a look forward after the jump. (More.) Posted by Megan Driscoll on July 18, 2008 at 8:45 | Comments (15) PermalinkThursday 06.26.08 A Better Bridge over the Columbia River
Zaha Hadid's Shiekh Zayed Bridge... it is time to up the ante on the new I-5 Columbia River crossing On Tuesday night it was announced that the Columbia River Crossing Taskforce has recommended that an entirely new bridge be built to replace the aging pair of bridges that constitute the only remaining lift spans on I-5. What hasn't been discussed much are the opportunities that the estimated 4.2 billion dollar project opens for a new type of bridge, one designed to meet 21st century ecological and humanistic pressures. By not putting an onus on smarter design the project has negatively polarized some that would otherwise welcome a better bridge. Yes the bridge is controversial but it's also the single best opportunity for Portland to put its money where it's mouth is, ethically, aesthetically, ecologically and technologically about being a progressive city. We aren't fond of cars here or more people, but they are unavoidable. Portlanders do however prefer better design, mass transit, human scale experiences, nature and green building ideas. The Tribune's article today emphasizes how the project must have MAX train mass transit. Ok that's a start, but it needs more...(more) Posted by Jeff Jahn on June 26, 2008 at 14:59 | Comments (8) PermalinkSunday 04.27.08 When Donald Judd Came to Portland "It isn't necessary for a work to have a lot of things to look at, to compare, to analyze one by one, to contemplate. The thing as a whole, its quality whole, is what is interesting. The main things are alone and are more intense, clear and powerful." -Donald Judd in his essay Specific Objects
 Donald Judd rafting down the Clackamas River with Bob Peirce Photograph taken by Bruce West at the Bottom of the Carter Bridge Rapids November 1974 The Portland Center for Visual Arts (PCVA) was based on a very simple premise: artists talking to artists. The PCVA was founded in 1971 by three artists Jay Backstrand, Mel Katz, and Michele Russo. The exhibition space was located on the third floor of 117 NW Fifth Ave. Katz wanted to give something to the community as well as bring to Portland some of the things that he missed from New York. Usually, the PCVA sent a letter to an artist explaining that they wanted to have a exhibition of the artist's work in the Northwest and could they follow up with a phone call the following week. This was a strategy that proved to be tremendously successful and they were soon able to attract some of the best artists in the country to come to Portland and have a show. The PVCA was unique in every sense of the word. The artists liked working with the PCVA because although there was a limited budget for each of the shows, there was never any limit to an artist's ideas. After the first few New York artists had a good experience working in Portland, the PCVA had an excellent reputation and the original artists often recommended other artists who might be willing to come out here. The founders set three objectives for the PCVA. First, they wanted to exhibit the best contemporary art that was being done in all regions of the United States. Second, they tried to stimulate commnuntiy awareness of the diversity and excellence of contemporary art through both exhibitions and others programs. Last, they wanted to bring the artist themselves to Portland to discuss their work. Over the 17 years they were able to put on an exhibition schedule that would have been successful and relevant even to MoMA. To give you some sense of the caliber of artists that have spent time in Portland because of the PCVA: Carl Andre, Yvonne Rainer, Lynda Benglis, Sol LeWitt, James Rosenquist, Daniel Buren, Ed Moses, Allan Kaprow, Frank Stella, Donald Judd, Alice Neel, John Baldesari, Chuck Close, Richard Serra, Chris Burden, Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Lucinda Childs, Andy Warhol and Agnes Martin just to name a few. It is hard to think of an arts institution that would have been more dynamic and relevant during that time period. The PCVA put on ten to fifteen visual arts exhibits every year as well as equal number of dance, music, and theater performances. There were a lot of things that were different about the PCVA and a comparable institution would not be created on the East or West Coast until the Dia Center was created in the late seventies.  Donald Judd Untitled, 1974 (Detail) 3/4" Plywood on 2" x 4" subframe 65'-4" x 46'-3" x 40'-6" Installed at the Portland Center for Visual Arts in November 1974 (c) Donald Judd 2008 More... Posted by Arcy Douglass on April 27, 2008 at 22:57 | Comments (5) PermalinkMonday 02.18.08 On Form (or from Polykleitos to Janine Antoni)  Polykleitos Doryphoros 450-440 B.C. When we look at art, are we only seduced by what we think is beautiful? Do we only respond to things that resonate with our sensibilities, our taste, or our history? As an artist is it our role to make beautiful things (paintings, sculptures, film, ideas etc...)?  Janine Antoni Saddle 2000 Everyone has their own path, so everyone will have to choose for themselves but for me, I do not think that art has anything to do with the beautiful. In my own experience, my tastes are constantly evolving as I am interacting with the world and learning new things. How can I stand in judgment of what is beautiful and what is not? What I find ugly today, I might that I find that is urgently needed and beautiful tomorrow. More... Posted by Arcy Douglass on February 18, 2008 at 18:19 | Comments (6) PermalinkFriday 12.21.07 Barnett Newman and the Totem Poles of the Northwest Coast Indians "The Kwakiutl artist painting on a hide did not concern himself with the inconsequentials that made up the opulent social rivalries of the Northwest Coast Indian scene, nor did he, in the name of a higher purity, renounce the living world for the meaningless materialism of design. The abstract shape he used, his entire plastic language, was directed by a ritualistic will towards metaphysical understanding. The everyday realities he left to the toymakers; the pleasant play of non-objective pattern to the women basket weavers. To him a shape was a living thing, a vehicle for an abstract thought-complex, a carrier of the awesome feelings he felt before the terror of the unknowable." -Barnett Newman , The Ideographic Picture 1947  Haida Totems Queen Charlotte Island 1890's More... Posted by Arcy Douglass on December 21, 2007 at 9:30 | Comments (0) Permalink |
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Site Design: Jennifer Armbrust | • | Site Development: Philippe Blanc & Katherine Bovee | |