EUGENE–A pair of exhibitions focusing on Northwest art and artists–"Heritage of Northwest Art: The Virginia Haseltine Collection" and "Community Favorites From The David McCosh Collection"–will open on Friday, June 30, at the University of Oregon Museum of Art,
1430 Johnson Lane.

Both exhibitions will continue through Sept. 3, when the museum is slated to close for more than two years while the 1932 building undergoes a $12 million major renovation that will more than double its size and bring its galleries, meeting spaces, climate control systems and offices up to modern art museum standards. The museum is slated to re-open in early 2003.

"Heritage of Northwest Art: The Virginia Haseltine Collection" is a selection of more than 70 works of art representing the late Portland art collector’s efforts, spanning more than 20 years, of collecting paintings, sculpture, prints and photographs of the artists of the Northwest.

"Community Favorites from the David McCosh Collection" is an exhibition of 29 paintings selected by several community members from the museum’s David J. McCosh Memorial Collection.

The Haseltine Collection holds works by the region’s more established artists, according to Lawrence Fong, the UO art museum’s curator of Northwest art.

"In some instances, the collection has very early examples of an artist’s career, such as paintings by Robert Colescott, Morris Graves and Mark Tobey," Fong explains. "Works by an artist in a variety of mediums, such as paintings and drawings by the sculptor Manuel Izquierdo or prints, paintings and collage by Louis Bunce, also are in this collection."

"In addition, functional, sculptural and experimental works by the region’s vanguard ceramicists are well represented," Fong says. "Moreover, portraits of artists–the prints, photographs and paintings several of the regions’ artists did of one another–offer an insight into this community."

One such painting included in this exhibition is a portrait of Haseltine by Portland artist Henk Pander.

"The painterly characteristics of Pander’s stunning painting of Haseltine are true to life," Fong says. "Vision and perseverance defined Haseltine’s pursuit of building an art collection that represented the art of her lifetime in Oregon."

The McCosh exhibition presents a broad range of the late artist’s work and, according to Fong, demonstrates how convincingly McCosh worked through several historical major art styles to an eventual development of his own idiom.

"McCosh did not imitate the cubist or abstract painters, yet their influence is clearly evident in some of the paintings," Fong explains.

For instance because it illustrates the influence of an earlier style, Mark Sponenburgh, a well-known Oregon sculptor, selected for the exhibition McCosh’s "Bridger Range II," a 1947 painting of the mountains in Montana.

"‘Bridger II’ is a cubist power play integrating rugged mountains, forested valleys and explosive skies," the Seal Rock sculptor says. "This painting documents the influence of Cezanne during his Aix period and marks a breakthrough in McCosh’s painterly style."

The Haseltine Collection was displayed first at a 1963 UO Museum of Art exhibition, "Pacific Northwest Art: The Haseltine Collection." In discussions following that exhibition, the museum’s then-current director Wallace Baldinger and Haseltine determined that no other museum in the region was acquiring a collection of art by artists living in the greater Pacific Northwest.

At the time, the Northwest was caught between the newly recognized Seattle Painters, which included Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves, Paul Horiuchi and Mark Tobey, and the thriving environment in California centered around the San Francisco Art Institute’s Clyfford Still and Richard Diebenkorn. In the early 1960s, Oregon was home to a relatively obscure, yet vibrant, community of artists.

Baldinger and Haseltine developed a plan to assemble a collection of Northwest art that supplemented Haseltine’s original collection exhibited in 1963.

Haseltine consulted with museum directors and curators at the Seattle Art Museum, at the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery and at the Portland Art Museum about plans for the Northwest art collection. She traveled extensively, meeting artists and gallery dealers in the region and in New York. Haseltine also worked directly with the artists to identify representative works for the museum to acquire.

Haseltine’s initial gift of art from her collection were two works by Morris Graves which came to the museum in 1965. Over the collection’s history at the UO Museum of Art, the original collection of 63 works has grown to more than 350 works. The most recent addition to this collection came in 1997 when the museum acquired a painting by Rick Bartow of Newport, Ore.

Along with the collection, Haseltine established an endowment providing for the care of the artworks and for new acquisitions.

McCosh, born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He came to the University of Oregon in 1934 to teach painting and printmaking at the School of Architecture and Allied Arts.

His early career included exhibits at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Portland Art Museum and Seattle Art Museum. He was commissioned to paint murals in Kelso, Wash., and for the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.

When McCosh died in 1981, he was probably best known as a teacher who inspired the Northwest’s new generation of painters. Fong says recent acquisitions of his work by the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University and by the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is evidence of McCosh’s enduring reputation as one of the important regional painters of his time.

The David J. McCosh Memorial Collection was established by his widow, Anne Kutka McCosh, in 1990. This collection is supported by a full archive of McCosh’s sketchbooks, watercolors, correspondence, lectures and notes.

Works for the McCosh exhibition were selected by the following artists, art enthusiasts and McCosh family members.

• Brian Booth, a Portland attorney and collector of Northwest Art, was the co-curator of the 1994 UO Museum of Art exhibition, "The World of Mr. Otis." As a founder of the Oregon Literary Guild, Booth is also known as a supporter of regional literature.

• Diane Lang Brissenden, a Eugene attorney and artist, has been a volunteer art teacher at Parker Elementary School for five years and an art museum docent for two years. Recently, Brissenden began a new phase of her career as executive director of the HIV Alliance.

• Kathleen Caprario, a painter in Eugene, is known for her lush landscapes.

• Mark Clarke, a Eugene painter who was a student of McCosh, has had numerous exhibits in Oregon and in the Midwest. He also was the art museum’s curator of exhibitions.

• Violet Fraser, a Eugene artist, philanthropist, community leader and a friend and benefactor of McCosh, studied with McCosh and collected his work throughout his tenure at the university.

• Bonnie McCosh, sister of David McCosh, is a member of the David J. McCosh Memorial Collection Advisory Committee. She contributed to the art museum’s understanding of the McCosh family history.

• Hope Pressman, member and past president of the UO Museum of Art Board of Directors, is chair of the museum’s capital campaign, and member of the UO Foundation Board of Trustees. She is highly respected for her dedication to the arts throughout the state and region, to the Museum of Art and to the university.

• Roger Saydack, a Eugene attorney, is a respected collector and scholar of Northwest art. He is a former member of the UO Museum of Art Council and was guest curator of the critically acclaimed 1998 exhibition, "C.S. Price, Landscape, Image and Spirit."

• Mark Sponenburgh of Seal Rock, Ore., is one of the foremost sculptors in Oregon. He has many commissioned works throughout the state and has held faculty positions in art history and fine arts at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

• Elisha Witt, a senior at Eugene’s Sheldon High School, has been involved in art, drama, music and sports. A volunteer in the museum’s teen docent program for the last two years, she will attend Pepperdine University next year to pursue an education in the arts.

The University of Oregon Museum of Art is a nonprofit state institution supported by the generosity of its members and by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Several private endowments provide operating funds.

This summer’s exhibitions are made possible by the generous support of the David J. McCosh Memorial Endowment and by the Virginia Haseltine Endowment.

Accessible to people with disabilities, the Museum of Art is open from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday and from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Suggested admission is $3, except on Wednesday evenings when the MusEvenings! program offers free extended viewing hours from
5 to 8 p.m. Museum members, students, UO employees and children are admitted free.

For information, browse http://uoma.uoregon.edu or call (541) 346-3027.

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