The exhibition, by Eugene artist Lynda Lanker, features portraits and stories from 49 women from 13 states

EUGENE, Ore. -- (March 26, 2012) – “Tough By Nature: Portraits of Cowgirls and Ranch Women of the American West,” an exhibition by Lynda Lanker,  opens this summer at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon. The public is invited to a free opening reception on June 30 from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition will remain on view through September 9, 2012.

“Tough By Nature” showcases Lynda Lanker’s passion for the American West and the women who have shaped it. Once dominated by ranches and agriculture, the West has been tamed and transformed through settlement and corporate development. This special exhibition honors the spirit and stories of ranch women and cowgirls who gain their sustenance and livelihood from the land. Though her work, Lanker documents a vanishing way of life that affirmed the role of women in the economy and ecology of the West. Following its presentation at the JSMA, the exhibition will travel to other venues under the auspices of Landau Traveling Exhibitions.

“Lynda Lanker is an immensely talented and versatile artist,” says museum executive director and exhibition curator Jill Hartz.  “One of the great achievements of this exhibition is the range of media Lynda uses to capture the spirit of her women.”  

Featured in the exhibition are charcoal and graphite drawings as well as stone and plate lithographs, acrylics, oil pastels, and egg tempera.

“In the studio, the challenge was how to best represent these exceptional women to the public through my art” explains Lanker. “I executed a number of pieces using a mixed media of oil pastel over watercolor or acrylic. But when I got to the portrait of New Mexico cowgirl Mary Caldwell, the media didn’t evoke who she was. So I made my first egg tempera, and there was Mary, right in front of me.”

Over nineteen years, Lanker traveled to 13 Western states, sketching, painting, interviewing and photographing more than 50 iconic Western women. The exhibition represents the culmination of a 19-year-long labor of love by Lanker, who is known in the Pacific Northwest as a consummate portrait painter. Her commissioned portraits include, among many others, five presidential portraits for the University of Oregon.

“I undertook this project because the character of these women is right there on the surface,” says Lanker. “Nothing to chip away. Just right there ready for me to express on paper or canvas or whatever.”

Born May 5, 1943, in Kansas City, Missouri, Lynda Lanker grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where she attended Wichita State University and received her bachelor’s degree in art education. In the mid-1980s her watercolors were recognized by Millard Sheets, a renowned artist of the California School, who awarded Lanker the sweepstakes prize in a competition of watercolor portraits. He subsequently arranged solo shows for the artist, generating sales of her work and the teaching of workshops.

The exhibition is accompanied by a hard-cover fully illustrated catalog, which includes contributions by Larry McMurtry, Sandra Day O’Connor and Maya Angelou, as well as an artist’s statement.  Featuring portraits and interviews with 49 of the women Lanker visited, the publication, which is made possible by The Ford Family Foundation and private donors, is distributed by Oregon State University Press. It will be available in the museum’s shop beginning June 30, at a price of $39.95.

About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest visual arts center for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. 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
Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu
Lynda Lanker, http://www.sockeyestudios.com/llanker/

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

New mixed media and video work by Peter Sarkisian on view at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
“Book 2” was commissioned in honor of former University of Oregon President Richard Larviviere

EUGENE, Ore. -- (June 28, 2012) – The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art has a new work in its collection, “Book 2,” by multi-media artist Peter Sarkisian. This commissioned piece, unique in the series, was made in honor of Richard Lariviere, the 16th President of the University of Oregon and includes homage to Lariviere and his hat. The new work will be on view through early fall.

For nearly fifteen years Peter Sarkisian has explored the spatial vernacular of video projection, creating installations that question the role of video by engaging the viewer in unique tactile experiences. Sarkisian’s multimedia installations lie at the intersection of film, video, and sculpture.

In this latest work, the Sarkisian pushes the medium further still, using cutting-edge 3D engineering and new materials to literally make his image crawl across the pages of a dictionary. The result is a series of dimensional installations, which include this piece, that defy categorization. From his smart use of technology to his exploration of social and political themes, his work stimulates audiences of all ages and interests.

Sarkisian began his career as a filmmaker, and then, in 1994, shifted to video projection to create a hybrid form of art.  The result is a richly textured art that engages the anxiety between the tangible and the illusive or as the artist says, “When used in this way, video cause the world to behave in ways it shouldn’t. It offers a version of our world that often causes our sense of what’s right and real to twist and distort.”  The JSMA held an exhibition of Sarkisian’s video works in late spring 2011.

“Book 2” was acquired with support from the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Acquisition Fund and Susan Cox and F. Gregory Fitz-Gerald, Jill Hartz and Richard Herskowitz, Robert H. and Sue Keene Malott, Hope Hughes Pressman, Bette and Dwayne Rice, Jordan Schnitzer, Christine and Chris A. Smith, Yvonne and Charles Stephens

About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. 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
Peter Sarkisian, www.petersarkisian.com