Throughlines:
Connections in the Collection
Portland Art Museum
October 28, 2023 – November 1, 2024
somebody had to break the rules, 1967
Color screenprint on Pellon, image/sheet: 29 7/8 in x 36 1/16 in
Museum Purchase: Print Acquisition Fund.
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2016.89.1
Portrait of a Sculptor, ca. 1680
Oil on canvas, 26 1/4 in x 22 1/4 in
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Binney, 3rd.
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 68.34
Self-Portrait, ca. 1930
Oil on canvas, 19 1/4 in x 15 1/2 in
Gift of Michael Parsons and Marte Lamb.
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2005.114.3
Mandolin, 1966
Stoneware with brown and yellow glaze, 23 1/2 in x 9 1/2 in x 10 5/8 in
Museum Purchase: Caroline Ladd Pratt Fund.
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 68.23
The seventh oldest museum in the United States, the Portland Art Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s holdings and the world’s finest public and private collections. The Museum’s collection of more than 50,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The collection is distinguished for its holdings of arts of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts. An active collecting institution dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum devotes 90 percent of its galleries to its permanent collection.
Throughlines: Connections in the Collection offers a fresh look at the Portland Art Museum’s collections by bringing together artworks from diverse geographies, cultures, and time periods that do not typically share a gallery.
After Boarding School: In Mourning, 2011
Oil on canvas, 36 in x 24 in
Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Native American Art Council
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2012.100.1
Likunt Daniel Ailin (The World Stage: Israel), 2013
Bronze, 45 in x 23 in x 19 in, Museum Purchase:
Funds provided by patrons of the 2014 New for the Wall
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2014.125.1
Three Kids, 1968
Oil on Masonite, 23 1/2 in x 35 5/8 in
Gift of Sandra Stone Peters.
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 86.70.5
Throughout time and place, artists have created images, objects, and experiences that ask us to consider ourselves and our world from different perspectives. Leading with a sense of curiosity and wonder, the curatorial team searched the collections, reflecting on the ways art connects everyone across time. They asked themselves and each other: What does a video art installation share with a European oil painting? A conceptual art photograph with a Native American woven basket? A Chinese vase with a print emblazoned with a poetic message?
The curatorial team developed four themes, including each collection broadly and in surprising ways. Drawing from portraits and figurative art, Pose looks at our desire to represent one another and to be represented. Environment explores how artists help us understand and honor nature and place. Expect the Unexpected shows how artists innovate with materials and explore unconventional processes in ways that broaden how art can be made and what it might mean. Color presents the powerful pop of pigments, paints, inks, glazes, and dyes, vibrantly lifting the senses.
The exhibition will also include programming curated by PAM CUT// Center for an Untold Tomorrow, the Museum’s film and new media arm, along with the Museum’s Learning and Community Partnerships department. Programs and activations include screenings, discussion groups, pop-ups, workshops, and more.
Throughlines is intended to be fun, inspiring, and thought-provoking for visitors who are accustomed to seeing the collection in siloed galleries. As the Museum campus undergoes transformation, this exhibition offers a preview of the kinds of collaborations and creative approaches that visitors will encounter when the Museum’s renovation and expansion project is complete.
Voodoo Child, Slight Return (solo), 2002
Acrylic on canvas, 54 in x 72 in
Gift of the Contemporary Art Council.
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2002.12
After Shitao's Landscape Album:
Shitao–Van Gogh, from the series Ongoing Shan Shui, 2002
Oil on canvas, 48 in x 36 in,
Gift of Judith B. Anderson
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2017.31.1
City Perspectives, 1932
Oil on canvas, 47 3/4 in x 37 3/4 in
Gift of Mr. Arthur H. Johnson.
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 78.17
Curatorial Team
Throughlines: Connections in the Collection is presented by the Portland Art Museum’s curatorial team, in collaboration with colleagues in PAM CUT// Center for an Untold Tomorrow and the Museum’s Learning and Community Partnerships department.
Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator of Native American Art
Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D., Curator of Prints and Drawings
Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Senior Curator of Photography
Amy Dotson, Curator of Film and New Media and Director of PAM CUT
Becky Emmert, Head of Accessibility
Erin Grant, Assistant Curator of Native American Art
Jaleesa Johnston, Head of Public Programs and Engagement
Jeannie Kenmotsu, Ph.D., The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art
Grace Kook-Anderson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art
Sara Krajewski, The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Stephanie Parrish, Director of Learning and Community Partnerships
Ben Popp, Head of Artist Services, PAM CUT
Teena Wilder, Art Bridges Community Partnerships & Curatorial Fellow
PORTLAND ART MUSEUM
1219 SW Park Aveenue, Portland, OR 97205
