PAM Museum – Dear Liza

After the Impressionists

Dear Liza,

Our eyes were pretty full of beauty as we left the French Moderns exhibit at PAM, but we weren’t done looking yet.

Since the Museum is undergoing an enormous remodel, most of it is just not available, but there was quite a bit of young-people noise coming from the first floor exhibit called “Future Now”.

This is an oddly fascinating show of sneakers… yes, athletic shoes. Old and new, functional and artsy, wearable and not-so-wearable. It was interesting, but there were several happy, totally involved school groups there, all discussing, drawing and designing. We decided we’d come back and see the shoes some other time, when the crowds had gone.

We visited the newly-relocated gift shop, which, as always, is filled with beautiful things. They were having a sale of postcards, and we got 30 for just $3.00! They will be useful for all sorts of artsy schemes.

And, of course, no trip to PAM is complete without lunch at Umbria, just a block towards the river. Enjoying delicious quiche, panini sandwiches, coffee and juice while watching the world go by on bike, foot and skateboard, is just about the best thing ever.

A short walk got us to the bus stop to head home. Roses in the City Hall courtyard made sure we had lots to look at while we waited.

Summer in Portland. Nothing like it.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Monet to Matisse

Dear Liza,

Auntie Bridgett and I took the bus down to the Portland Art Museum on Friday for the opening of a show called “Monet to Matisse: French Moderns”. These paintings and sculptures had been borrowed from the collections of the Brooklyn Art Museum in New York.

We were greeted by this wonderful study for Rodin’s Bronze Man.

There were three big galleries of paintings by Monet, Marc Chagall, Berthe Marisot, Edgar Degas, and many others.

These are all impressionists, a style I love, and I was in heaven just walking and staring.

But my favorite painting today was this tiny Marc Chagall, featuring his violin player. The bright colors and careless brush strokes reminded me of paintings by Jerry Garcia, of the Grateful Dead. It just really made me smile.

I will tell you more about our day out tomorrow.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Downtown, Renewal, and Therapy

Dear Liza,

The day before Thanksgiving, Grandpa Nelson and I went downtown. We always enjoy seeing the busy city, even when the weather is grey and damp.

This time of year, all the trees are getting some sort of decoration, getting ready for Christmas. Some trunks are wrapped with lights, but this one in the South Park blocks had these lighted dingle bangles hanging from it.

Further down on the Park blocks we passed one of my favorite places, the Portland Art Museum. It is an old building, and has been expanded and added onto many times for nearly a hundred years. Its current construction is two buildings being joined together across the courtyard. I leaned through the fence to get a view of the work.

Once the two buildings are joined, (where the Black Lives Matter sign is,) you will be able to easily get from one section of the museum to another. The downside is that lovely tree behind the gap won’t be visible from this side.

Finally, we got to the reason for our trip downtown. Grandpa Nelson had another appointment with Janna for physical therapy, and she showed him some more exercises to make his back and abdomen muscles stronger.

After wandering around some more and enjoying yummy Sesame Donuts, we caught the Magic 15 bus back home for a well deserved rest.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Contemporary Art vs. Modern Art

Dear Liza,

Frank Benson’s “Portrait of Elizabeth”, from 1901, is Modern Art

I learn a lot when I go to PAM, our art museum, with Auntie Bridgett. She has studied art history, so she helps me see things in perspective.

All these styles, from 1890 to 1940 or so, are Modern Art!

For example, I always thought that since Modern usually means the newest and most current thing, that Modern would be the newest, latest art. I was wrong! Modern art, as it turns out, had a specific time span, from just before 1850 to about 1950. So Modern art is older than me!

One of Monet’s Parasol ladies, about 1875, is Modern Art

Modern Art also had a lot of different styles in it… Picasso’s cubism, Salvatore Dali’s surrealism, and abstract art are all “Modern” art.

Art that is done NOW, (or at least, since 1950) is called “Contemporary” Art.

Since it is newer and not carried in as many museums or art books, people aren’t as used to seeing it… so they say “That’s not art,” which is exactly what people said about the great Impressionist Monet (1850s-1920) when HE started. It was “smudgy”, “sloppy”, and “unfinished”. They didn’t get it.

Aldridge’s “Biophilia”, from 2007, is Contemporary Art

So when I see Contemporary Art and think “That’s not art”, I try to hold my tongue. I try to see what idea the artist is trying to get across, and how well that did it. It can be a challenge, but challenges are good.

Art keeps making me ask questions and think harder about things.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Hank Willis Thomas Has More to Say

Dear Liza,

The next set of galleries in the “All Things Being Equal” exhibit at PAM hit much closer to home for me. Called “Unbranded, a Century of White Women,” it used magazine advertisements to look at how stereotypes of white women had been used to sell products, but also, how the stereotypes themselves have been cemented in society so firmly that we see them as fact.

Mother and daughter baking, selling baking soda and gender roles

Since each other these images is THE picture that a company chose to sell its product, you have to ask… why this one? Mr. Thomas proposes that the men creating the ads wanted women to see themselves only as mothers, bakers and cleaners, and that these were noble, life-fulfilling roles. This kept them safely cloistered at home and let the men run things.

But it got even darker.

This ad featuring half a young woman’s unwrinkled face and half with wrinkles due to sun damage, is supposedly selling sunscreen. I remember when it was in one of my mother’s magazines, and she talked about how important it was to wear a hat and use sunscreen, because “no one wants to look like that.”

What she didn’t talk about, was that old age, for women in particular, was to be postponed at all costs. And she didn’t talk about it because it was assumed. Women were worthy while they were young and pretty.

Other ads showed women in “a man’s world”, but always in a way that threw a bone to males and their opinions as being ‘right’.

For example, this politically active, joyous woman is celebrating at a political convention…. while wearing a pointy bra. “Yes, you can vote and stuff,” it seems to say. “But you still have to wear this ridiculous underwear to be a real woman.”

This ad shows two fellows mountain climbing with a woman, who is coming up from behind and slowing them down. “See?” The ad says, without words. “If you leave the kitchen and insist on being out in the men‘s world, you just look silly and ruin it for everyone.”

These images were created by companies to sell products, but were often seen by people as “showing the way things were.” Women should teach their daughters (no boys were used in any of these campaigns) to clean and bake. Women are prettier when younger. Women do look silly when they step into the political arena. See? It’s right there in the magazine.

So, when you watch TV or read online or in a magazine, look at what’s being shown, and ask yourself, “What are they really selling?”

Love,

Grandma Judy