Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection
debuts October 10, 2015 at Portland Art Museum
Debuting at the Portland Art Museum on October 10, 2015, Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection features 39 masterpieces exploring the evolution of European and American landscape painting. On view in Portland through January 10, 2016, the show then travels to The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. (February 6 – May 8, 2016), the Minneapolis Institute of Art (July 10 – September 18, 2016), the New Orleans Museum of Art (October 14, 2016 – January 15, 2017), and the Seattle Art Museum (February 16 – May 21, 2017). The exhibition presents masterpieces spanning five centuries by artists such as Paul Cézanne, David Hockney, Edward Hopper, Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, Thomas Moran, Georgia O’Keeffe, Gerhard Richter and J.M.W. Turner. The exhibition is co-organized by Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum and the Paul G. Allen Family Collection.
“I am excited to be sharing the Seeing Nature exhibit with others,” says Paul G. Allen. “These are really exceptional pieces of art and there’s something about landscapes that is universally attractive, which is why I find them so interesting. By sharing these paintings with the public, it is my hope that people will have the same eye-opening experiences I had when I first saw these pieces.”
The exhibition explores the development of landscape painting, from a small window on the world to interpretations of artists’ personal experiences with their surroundings on land and sea. It reveals the power of landscape to locate the viewer in time and place—to record, explore, and understand the natural and man-made world.
“Seeing Nature reflects the geographical and historical breadth of the Paul G. Allen Family Collection, and we are pleased to be sharing the exhibition with the public,” said Mary Ann Prior, director of arts collections, Vulcan Inc. “These works will live on far beyond any of us. As temporary custodians of these masterpieces, we take great care and responsibility in being their cultural conservators.”
In the 19th century, the early Impressionists focused on direct observation of nature. This exhibition is particularly strong in the works of Claude Monet. Five Monet landscapes spanning 30 years are featured, from views of the French countryside to one of his late representations of water lilies, Le Bassin aux Nymphéas of 1919. Cézanne and his fellow Post-Impressionists used a more subjective approach to creating works such as La Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1888-90). Also on view is Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s rare landscape masterpiece, Birch Forest of 1903, exhibited for the first time since its restitution in 2006.
Several works in the exhibition offer varying interpretations of a single location. Venice’s romantic vista is seen through multiple lenses, from Canaletto’s detailed renderings, to J.M.W. Turner and Thomas Moran’s dreamy visions, to Manet’s photographic crispness and Monet’s nearly abstract composition. The Grand Canyon’s immensity is seen in Moran’s intimately scaled depiction, Arthur Wesley Dow’s mesmerizing pattern of ridged peaks, and David Hockney’s multi-canvas composition.
The last part of the exhibition explores the paintings of 20th century artists, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Hopper, David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, and Ed Ruscha, who brought fresh perspectives to traditional landscape subjects. For example, O’Keeffe’s Black Iris IV, though a close-up of a single flower, represents a microcosm of full-scale landscape vistas.
Each museum will develop unique programming to complement the exhibit. The Portland Art Museum will present a variety of related programs in conjunction with Seeing Nature. The Museum is collaborating with Allen Institute for Brain Science, Oregon Health & Science University’s Brain Institute, and NW Noggin, as well as other regional partners, to bring a neuroscience lens to the Museum’s featured exhibition. Through “The Nature of Seeing” an interpretive gallery inside the exhibition, as well as multimedia content and public programs, visitors will have unique opportunities to explore what emerging research tells us about how our brains respond when we view landscape paintings and the natural world.
To learn more about the Portland debut of Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection visit: http://portlandartmuseum.org/seeingnature.
Materials for press use are available at: http://portlandartmuseum.org/seeingnature/press.
About Vulcan, Inc.
Vulcan, Inc. creates and advances a variety of world-class endeavors and high-impact initiatives that change and improve the way people live, learn, do business and experience the world. Founded in 1986 by investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen, Vulcan oversees various business and charitable projects including real estate holdings, investments in dozens of companies, including the Seattle Seahawks NFL, Seattle Sounders FC Major League Soccer, and Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchises, First & Goal Inc., the Seattle Cinerama theatre, Experience Music Project, the Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Allen Institute for Cell Science and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. For more information, visit http://www.vulcan.com.
About the Portland Art Museum
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 45,000 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. The Museum’s campus of landmark buildings, a cornerstone of Portland’s cultural district, includes the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, the Northwest Film Center, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art. With a membership of more than 22,000 households and serving more than 350,000 visitors annually, the Museum is a premier venue for education in the visual arts. For information on exhibitions and programs, call 503-226-2811 or visit portlandartmuseum.org.
About Seattle Art Museum
As the leading visual art institution in the Pacific Northwest, SAM draws on its global collections, powerful exhibitions, and dynamic programs to provide unique educational resources benefiting the Seattle region, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. SAM was founded in 1933 with a focus on Asian art. By the late 1980s the museum had outgrown its original home, and in 1991 a new 155,000-square-foot downtown building, designed by Robert Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, opened to the public. The 1933 building was renovated and reopened as the Asian Art Museum. SAM’s desire to further serve its community was realized in 2007 with the opening of two stunning new facilities: the nine-acre Olympic Sculpture Park (designed by Weiss/Manfredi Architects)—a “museum without walls,” free and open to all—and the Allied Works Architecture designed 118,000-square-foot expansion of its main, downtown location, including 232,000 square feet of additional space built for future expansion.
From a strong foundation of Asian art to noteworthy collections of African and Oceanic art, Northwest Coast Native American art, European and American art, and modern and contemporary art, the strength of SAM’s collection of more than 25,000 objects lies in its diversity of media, cultures and time periods.
Image Caption: David Hockney, The Grand Canyon, 1998. Oil on canvas, 48 1/2 x 169 inches. Courtesy of Paul G. Allen Family Collection.
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