Portland, Maine (January 15, 2016)— Masterworks on Paper: Highlights from the Portland Museum of Art presents exquisite artworks from the PMA collection. This exhibition of rarely seen drawings, prints, watercolors, and photographs showcases the myriad ways artists work on paper, highlighting the integral relationship between eye, hand, and mind that is the basis for all art-making. As a result, Masterworks fulfills the promise of art: drawing you in to expand your world.

Showcasing the breadth of the PMA collection, each of the approximately 100 works in the exhibition realizes art’s potential to inspire and excite while collectively demonstrating shifts in cultural and aesthetic trends over the last 175 years. Works by renowned artists such as Chuck Close, Helen Frankenthaler, Edward Hopper, Yvonne Jacquette, Roy Lichtenstein, Glenn Ligon, and Édouard Manet are at once intimate and astounding, sharing gallery space with lesser-known but equally stunning works from the PMA collection.

Masterworks on Paper: Highlights from the Portland Museum of Art opens at 4 p.m. on January 22 and runs through June 5. It is the first major exhibition of Your Museum, Reimagined, the PMA’s multiyear project focused on improved access to and experiences with the PMA collection.

“This exhibition is a rare and truly special opportunity to view many of the PMA’s best works in one place,” explains Andrew Eschelbacher, the PMA’s Susan Donnell and Harry W. Konkel Assistant Curator of European Art. “Works on paper offer a sense of immediacy that creates an intimate relationship between audiences and the works of art. Works such as Pemaquid Light by Edward Hopper—one of the museum’s great masterpieces—present an unparalleled opportunity to experience the artist’s technique and creative energy. The same holds true of watercolors by Winslow Homer and Marguerite Zorach, as well as photographs by Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, and Gertrude Käsebier. These works are seldom on view because of their light sensitivity, but Masterworks provides the perfect opportunity to consider these exquisite artworks together, leading us to discover the potential of art.”

Hopper’s Pemaquid Light is among the most requested works of art by visitors to the PMA. That watercolor, along with several of the works found in this exhibition, are among the 100 highlighted artworks featured in The Collection: Highlights from the Portland Museum of Art, the museum’s first-ever collection catalogue. Others, including superb works by Peggy Bacon, Gustave Le Gray, and John Storrs, provide insight into each artist’s oeuvre, allowing audiences to enjoy intimate moments with art created at significant periods in the artists’ careers and practices.

For more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact Elizabeth Jones.

THE PMA’S COMMITMENT TO WORKS ON PAPER

At the midpoint of the show, the PMA will rotate out a selection of drawings, watercolors, and photographs based on their exhibition history and particular sensitivity to light exposure. This will allow visitors the opportunity to view additional highlights from the PMA’s collection of works on paper.

Masterworks also signals the museum’s commitment to exhibiting works on paper on a continual basis. As part of Your Museum, Reimagined, the PMA will devote a new space in the museum to this area of the collection. Installations in the William D. Hamill Gallery on the third floor of the Payson Building will rotate several times during the year, allowing visitors many opportunities to engage deeply with works on paper from the PMA collection. Edward Curtis: Selections from The North American Indian, opening on February 26, is the first exhibition in the newly designated space.

YOUR M– USEUM, REIMAGINED

The Portland Museum of Art (PMA) is undergoing a significant transformation as part of a multiyear project focused on improved access to the museum’s collection titled Your Museum, Reimagined. The completed first phase of this comprehensive project, to be opened to the public on January 22, 2016, includes the following:

The Peggy L. Osher Art Study and Collection Committee Conference Room offers students, professors, scholars, and members of the public unique access to the PMA collection. In this intimate, on-site location, visitors are able to immerse themselves in the collection and closely interact with curators and staff (by scheduled appointment).

The Workshop is a new participatory space where visitors of all ages can explore creativity with museum educators and add their voices to the stories we tell. The Workshop offers audiences the opportunity to make meaning from the PMA’s collection and special exhibitions through interactive activities based around play and experimentation.

The Collection: Highlights from the Portland Museum of Art is the first collection catalogue in the history of the PMA. Boasting full-color plates of 100 highlights from the PMA collection and essays by PMA curators, this publication provides context for the museum’s history, architecture, and art—commemorating the ongoing legacy of the museum.

Modern Menagerie is the PMA’s first reinstalled gallery as part of Your Museum, Reimagined. The space features a colorful ensemble of creatures of
all stripes, including migrating gazelles, lions, and zebras; schools of listening fish; a herd of Staffordshire porcelain sculptures; and Bernard Langlais’ 1977 masterpiece of more than 20 painted wood animals.

The Collection Online is the online database for the PMA’s entire collection of more than 18,000 works of art, ranging from Andy Warhol and Winslow Homer to Louise Nevelson and Claude Monet. It would take nearly 10 years of constant gallery rotations to see everything in the museum, but now anyone can see the entire collection online, no matter where they are. Whatever your interests, whoever your favorites, it’s yours to explore at PortlandMuseum.org/collection.

In February 2017, the PMA will unveil the centerpiece of Your Museum, Reimagined—a holistic reconceptualization and reinstallation of the museum’s galleries across the PMA’s entire campus. In addition, the PMA will introduce new interpretive and educational materials, including a museum map, self-guided tours and multimedia stations. For more information, visit PortlandMuseum.org/reimagined.

PMA BACKGROUND

With an extensive collection and nationally renowned exhibitions, the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) is the cultural heart of Portland, Maine. The PMA boasts significant holdings of American, European, and contemporary art, as well as iconic works from Maine—highlighting the rich artistic tradition of the state and its artists. The museum brings it all to life with unparalleled programming. >From special members-only events, Free School Tours, and a commitment to family activities, to movies, curator talks, and exclusive tours of the Winslow Homer Studio—it’s all happening at the PMA.

The museum is located at Seven Congress Square in downtown Portland. Starting January 22, 2016, the PMA will be open: Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Thursday and Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For summer hours, starting May 30, 2016, the PMA will be open: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursday and Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, and $10 for students with I.D. Children 14 and under are free. Admission is free every Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. No admission is required to visit the PMA Café and PMA Store. Winslow Homer Studio tours are available by reservation. For more information, call (207) 775-6148 or visit portlandmuseum.org.

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