I was invited to the black tie event at the U of Oregon in Eugene for the opening of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art...there were only 1200 of us so just a little group....great party but a 240 mile round trip drive to get there and back...I drank so much coffee to be sure I was awake to drive home that I was up until 3 AM.
Of course you know in Oregon "black tie" means anything from tennis shoes and jeans to tuxedos...and all were there. Jordan Schnitzer is our resident millionaire here in Portland, from the Schintzer steel family...he collects prints in a huge way and loves printmaking. He knows a lot about his artists and his collection but not a whole lot about process (from a printmakers view, the general public probably does not know this). He gives impassioned speaches about his collection and if you ever have a chance to hear him speak, don't miss it. You will be enthralled and so very excited when you leave. He mounts exhibits all over the northwest and pays for buses to bring school children from all the surrounding areas to see the works. He has 54 exhibits going as I write this. So you can imagine the amount of work he has. I have seen his store room and it is unbelievable. It fills the whole basement of a highrise building here in Portland. He considers himself a steward of the work and
wants everyone to see these great American contemporary prints. He is doing a fine job of making this happen.
There was a fabulous Warhol room from his own collection, you cannot imagine the number of works. Must have been 75 of them, all huge. It is the most impressive exhibit I have ever seen of this work. He has the Marilyn Monroe series, the pop can series, the Mao series, the shoes, the shadows, the green stamps and lots and lots of portraits. Jordan spoke at length and only about 50 people were in the room at the time to hear his speech about the Warhols. It was just so very interesting, you cannot imagine how fun it was. Truly a great thing for the backwoods of Oregon.
I also saw a woodblock artist in a small in between room, sort of a passageway between one great gallery and another. There were about 12 prints of Junichiro Sekino, an artist I did not know. He was a contemporary printmaker who died in 1988. You can see some of his work here
http://uoma.uoregon.edu/collection/japanese/
http://www.wlotus.com/JunichiroSekino/default.htm
http://www.robynbuntin.com/ukiyo-e/browse_by_artist.asp?ArtistID=193
the pieces in the museum were all roof and landscape scenes and beautifully done. Not thin lines, but amazing compositions and so well printed. I have a book on Clifton Karhu and this work reminded me a little bit of his work. If anyone lives close enough to go see this, I highly recommend it. They seem to have a great Asian collection as I saw a lot of work in other rooms as well, beautiful screens and scrolls.
The Warhols are worth seeing as well...all in all it was an amazing experience! See info about the museum here:
http://uoma.uoregon.edu/
Best to all,
Barbara