Oregon Art History

with an emphasis on representational art

 

Introduction

This section of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) catalogue Topics in American Art is devoted to the topic "Oregon Art History." Articles and essays specific to this topic published in TFAO's Resource Library are listed at the beginning of the section. Clicking on titles takes readers directly to the articles and essays.

Following the links to Resource Library articles and essays are a listing of museums in the state which have provided materials to Resource Library for this or any other topic.

Listed after Resource Library articles, essays and museums are links to online resources outside the TFAO website. Following these resources is information about offline resources including DVDs, paper-printed books, journals and articles. Our goal is to present complete knowledge relating to this section of Topics in American Art.

 

(above: James Everett Stuart, Crater Lake, Looking West from the Surface of the Water, 1882, oil on canvas, 14 x 22 inches, Spanierman Gallery.  Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

 

Texts contained in Resource Library by named authors listed by author name in alphabetical order:

Where Eagles Fly: Artists of the Pacific Northwest by Maria Sharylen

 

Articles contained in Resource Library without named authors listed by article name in alphabetical order:

NW Perspectives: Judy Hill

People of the River: Native Arts of the Oregon Territory

We recommend that researchers always search within Resource Library for additional material. Please see TFAO's page How to research topics not listed for more information. As of April, 2015 Resource Library contains 269 pages including the state's name.

 

(above: William S. Parrott, Mount Hood, c.1880, oil on canvas,  21.7 x 31.6 inches, Portland Art Museum.  Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Museums and other non-profit sources of Resource Library articles and essays:

Please click on the name of each source to view articles and essays related to that source:

Coos Art Museum

Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University

Portland Art Museum

Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University

 

(above: Portland Art Museum. Photo by John Hazeltine © 2005)

 

Other online information:

"'Art Feeling Grows' in Oregon: The Portland Art Association, 1892-1932," by Patrick Forster, from Portland State University Branford P. Millar Library (see link to .pdf file containing the full text of the thesis). Accessed August, 2015.

Arts section of the Oregon Encyclopedia contains a visual arts page with biographies of historic Oregon artists. Accessed August, 2015.

Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts: Selected Works, an exhibit held October 17, 2014 - March 21, 2015 at the Missoula Art Museum. Includes video. Accessed March, 2015.

History of the Oregon Society of Artists from Oregon Society of Artists. Accessed August, 2015.

History of The Salem Art Association, from The Salem Art Association. Accessed August, 2015.

In the Beginning - Minor White's Oregon Photographs is a 2017 exhibit at the Portland Art Museum - Oregon which says: "Long before co-founding Aperture magazine or establishing the groundbreaking photography program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, renowned modernist photographer Minor White (American, 1908-1976) moved to Portland, where he sowed the seeds of what would become a forceful artistic vision."  Accessed 1/18

Louis Bunce: Dialogue with Modernism is a 2017 exhibit at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University which says: "The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is pleased to present a major retrospective exhibition for Louis Bunce (1907-1983), a legendary Portland painter, printmaker, and teacher who taught at the Museum Art School from 1946 to 1972 and who influenced several generations of Oregon artists." Accessed 8/18

Make Your Mark: Prints from the Rick Bartow Print Archive is a 2019 exhibit at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art which says: "Rick Bartow (Wiyot, 1946-2016) was a renowned Oregon artist who worked in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, and sculpture. He was also a prolific printmaker and over the years created etchings, lithographs, and monoprints with different printmakers. This small exhibition focuses on Bartow's devotion to drypoint etching, which represents his most favored printmaking technique."  Accessed 5/20

Murals of Lane County OR, a photo Essay by Herman Krieger, from Herman Krieger. Accessed August, 2015.

nic & sloy: side by side is a 2017 exhibit at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University which says: "Salem artists Dave and Sandra Nichols (under the pseudonyms "nic" and "sloy") create new interpretations of archaic myths and customs from combinations of found objects and fragments of language." Accessed 12/17

Oregon Society of Artists by Jody Klevit, from Oregon Encyclopedia - Oregon History and Culture, Portland State University. Accessed August, 2015.

Oregon State Capitol from the Oregon Encyclopedia. Accessed August, 2015.

"PNCA at 100" exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. from Pacific Northwest College of Art. The texts discusses the relationship of the College with the Museum Art School and the Portland Sketch Club. Accessed August, 2015.

Portland Art Association from the Oregon Encyclopedia. Accessed August, 2015.

Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain is a 2015 exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art which says: "Representing more than forty years of work, Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain features a broad selection of sculptures, paintings, drawings and prints, drawn from public and private collections, including the artist's studio, that affirm this extraordinary artist's regional, national, and international impact." Accessed 5/20

Stilleven: Contemporary Still Life  is a 2015 exhibit at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University which says: "Stilleven (the Dutch word for still life) features work by contemporary artists from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia who focus on still life in their artwork." Accessed 8/18

Volcano!: Mount St. Helens in Art is a 2020 exhibit at the Portland Art Museum - Oregon which says: "The exhibition includes fine examples created for Pacific Northwest homes by Eliza Barchus, Grace Russell Fountain, Clyde Leon Keller, William Samuel Parrott, Cleveland Rockwell, and James Everett Stuart, as well as paintings by artists such as Albert Bierstadt who were visiting the area from the East Coast."   Accessed 12/20

 

(above: Port Orford Morning, 2021, Photo by John Hazeltine)

 

Books, listed by year of publication, with most recently published book listed first:

Portland Cultural Tours: Public Art Walking Tour., By Or Regional Arts & Culture Council (Portland, Portland Oregon Visitors Association. Published by Regional Arts & Culture Council : Portland Oregon Visitors Association, 2006

Lewis and Clark in Oregon Art, by Jeffry Lloyd Uecker. 32 pages. Publisher: Oregon Historical Society Press (January 2003). ISBN-10: 0875952763. ISBN-13: 978-0875952765

Oregon Painters: The First Hundred Years (1859-1959) : Index and Biographical Dictionary, by Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit, 341 pages. Publisher: Oregon Historical Society Press (October 1999). ISBN-10: 0875952712 ISBN-13: 978-0875952710.

Oregon Historical Society says: "This reference work is a labor of love written by two long-time docents at the Portland Art Museum. The volume includes a series of introductory essays on various aspects of the history of the arts in Oregon, including nineteenth-century artists, the Lewis and Clark Exposition of 1905, and federal arts projects sponsored by the Works Projects Administration. The biographical entries provide information on the artists' specialties, exhibits, and the locations of surviving artworks."
 
Alan Bamberger says that the book contains: "... a synopsis of Oregon art history, a timeline of Oregon art, names of significant outside artists who visited Oregon, information about Federal Arts Projects in Oregon, a section of photographs of artists, color illustrations of representative works of art, a biographical artist dictionary indexing about 500 names, and more. Artists listings are comprehensive and well organized and, as with the Texas dictionary mentioned above, I located basic information on an Oregon artist that I had previously come up pretty much empty-handed on in my researches. Oregon Painters is a quirky mish-mash of a book, but it's a good quirky mish-mash and an absolute necessity for anyone interested in learning about Oregon art history or collecting Oregon art and artists."

Portland's Public Art: A Guide and History, By Norma Catherine Gleason, Chet Orloff. Published by Western Imprints, 1983. Original from the University of Michigan. Digitized Dec 19, 2007. ISBN 0875950590, 9780875950594. 69 pages

Folk Art of the Oregon Country, By Suzi Jones, Oregon Arts Commission, University of Oregon Museum of Art, Oregon Historical Society, Renwick Gallery. Published by Oregon Arts Commission, 1980. 128 pages. Google Books says: "Catalog of an exhibition organized by the Oregon Arts Commission, held Feb. 10-Mar. 23, 1980 at the University of Oregon Museum of Art, Apr. 17-Aug. 1, 1980 at the Oregon Historical Society, and Oct. 3, 1980-Feb. 1, 1981 at the Renwick Gallery, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution."

 

Articles:

From Oregon Historical Society's Oregon Historical Quarterly: "The Albina Mural Project," by Robin Dunitz (Winter 2010), and "Promoting Tourism and Development at Crater Lake: The Art of Grace Russell Fountain and Mabel Russell Lowther," by Gail E. Evans (Fall 2015). TFAO thanks Eliza E. Canty-Jones, Editor, Oregon Historical Quarterly, for these citations.

 

(above: Oregon Pumpkin Patch, 2018. Photo by John Hazeltine)

 

 

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