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The special exhibition “Provenance: In Honor of Arlene Schnitzer” featuring Northwest artists, opens at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

The special exhibition “Provenance: In Honor of Arlene Schnitzer” featuring Northwest artists, opens at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

    EUGENE, Ore. -- (May 3, 2012) – “Provenance: In Honor of Arlene Schnitzer,” an exhibition featuring more than 40 works by Northwest artists, opens at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on May 12, 2012. Selected from the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Art Collection, the exhibition will be on view in the Schnitzer Gallery of American Art through September 15, 2012.

      From the founding of the Fountain Gallery of Art in 1961 to the present, Arlene Schnitzer has created provenance – the history and ownership of a work of art. Schnitzer’s impact on the way we see and appreciate the art of our time, and particularly, the artists of the Pacific Northwest, is unparalleled. This exhibition and its accompanying catalog document and highlight histories and relationships between Arlene Schnitzer and the members of her art world—the artists, curators, collectors, and particular works of art that define her life.
      
      Organized by Lawrence Fong, curator of American and regional art, and Danielle Knapp, McCosh Fellow Curator, “Provenance” comprises works by Katherine Ace, Robert Arneson, Jay Backstrand, Rick Bartow, Louis Bunce, Robert Colescott, Roy De Forest, Betty Feves, Morris Graves, Gregory Grenon, Paul Horiuchi, Fay Jones, Jun Kaneko, Mel Katz, Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, Sherry Markovitz, Carl Morris, William Morris, Deborah Oropallo, Henk Pander, Lucinda Parker, Jack Portland, C. S. Price, René Rickabaugh, Michele Russo, Akio Takamori, and Mark Tobey.
      
      “The beginnings of this exhibition came from a conversation with Arlene Schnitzer about the contributions of artists to the history of our place and time,” says Fong. “Her intuition and early pursuit to learn and understand the arts directly from artists grew into the first successful art gallery in Portland. Today, Schnitzer is as contemporary and trendsetting as she was in 1961 with the founding of The Fountain Gallery of Art.”

    On Saturday, May 12, at 2:00 p.m., in the gallery, Fong moderates a discussion with artists Mel Katz and Lucinda Parker about their work and Schnitzer’s impact on the Pacific Northwest art scene.  On Friday, June 1, at 2 p.m., Fong and UO art history graduate students Jeff Carlson, Jessi DiTillio, and Anne Taylor discuss the making of the exhibition.

      An 88-page catalog accompanies the exhibition and includes an introduction by Jill Hartz, executive director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, essays by Fong, Linda Tesner, Director, Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art, Lewis & Clark College, and artists Lucinda Parker and Mel Katz. The artist biographies and illustrated checklist were compiled by Knapp and University of Oregon students Jeffrey Carlson, Jessica DiTillio and Anne Taylor. The catalog retails for $19.95 and is available for sale in The Museum Store.

      The exhibition and catalogue are made possible with generous support from Arlene Schnitzer/The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, the William A. Haseltine Museum of Art Endowment Fund, and JSMA members. This project is also supported in part by a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum with exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public.  The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, America and elsewhere as well as changing special exhibition galleries.  The JSMA is one of six museums in Oregon accredited by the American Association of Museums.

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

Contact: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu
Link: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu