EUGENE–"C.S. Price: Landscape, Image and Spirit," an exhibition of 32 paintings by one of the Northwest’s first modernist painters, will open Saturday, Oct. 31, at the University of Oregon Museum of Art (UOMA), 1430 Johnson Lane.

The exhibition, which continues through Jan. 3, 1999, brings together for the first time several of Price’s most significant works held in private and public collections. It comprises the first major evaluation of Price’s work in more than 20 years.

The exhibition was organized by the Hearst Art Gallery of St. Mary’s College of California, Moraga, Calif., and will travel also to the Monterey Museum of Art in Monterey, Calif. An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition and is available for sale in the UO art museum store.

Roger Saydack, guest curator for the exhibition, will give an introductory lecture at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, in Room 177 of Lawrence Hall, 1190 Franklin Blvd. on the UO campus. An opportunity to preview the exhibition will follow from 8—9:30 p.m. at the museum. Both events are free and open to the public.

C.S. Price was prominent among the painters in the first generation of West Coast modernists. His painting evolved from an intense and lyrical realism into a highly independent personal statement that presaged abstract expressionism.

This exhibition examines the development of three themes in Price’s work–landscape painting, paintings of animals and paintings of boats–that occupied him from the 1920s in Monterey, Calif., when he was struggling to understand modernism, until his death in Portland, Ore., in 1950. Each thematic segment illustrates the evolution of Price’s thinking about the subject and shows how his painting changed to reflect his evolving thought.

Price’s paintings often have a rough-hewn, crude appearance, with dry, complex surfaces and a palette of closely related colors. His paintings of all sizes and subjects often feel monumental in concept. "No matter how small the painting," he said, "each stroke should feel as broad as the room."

Clayton S. Price was born in 1874 and came of age in Wyoming as the eldest of 12 children of a stockman father. The West was still wild and rugged, and Price learned the range and survival skills required on the frontier.

Price hired out as a cowhand and range boss, spending many hours alone with the landscape, the animals and a sketchbook. The early sketches express an intimate understanding of his surroundings–realistic renderings of cattle, horses, coyotes and the land they inhabited–by a careful and sensitive observer who was always searching for the essence of his subject.

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915 provided a turning point in Price’s painting career. There, he first saw modernist paintings and met painters working in this style, which inspired him to move to Monterey, Calif., around 1918 to paint full-time.

Price moved north to Portland in 1929. Over the next 20 years, his work was shown widely, at the Portland Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Valentine Gallery and the Willard Gallery in New York City, among others. Although acknowledged through acquisition by important national museums and collectors, Price’s work fell into relative obscurity after his death in 1950.

In addition to paintings by C.S. Price, the museum is showcasing works by Northwest painters whose independent expressions were in response to contemporary experience and ideas in the mid-20th century. "Changing Perspectives on Modernism," on exhibit from Oct. 30—Jan. 3, includes work by Mark Tobey, Yun Gee, Charles Heaney, Amanda Snyder and Morris Graves.

In conjunction with these exhibitions, the museum has organized an interactive gallery focusing on the elements of art and processes used by Price. The C.S. Price Discovery Gallery will include hands-on art activities, a CD-ROM computer station, a listening and reading station, and materials from the artist’s studio. The gallery will be open during museum hours from Oct. 30—Jan. 3. To arrange special tours for school and community groups, call the art museum tour office, (541)
346-0968.

A variety of related programs and events have been organized throughout the exhibition.

A one-day symposium devoted to the life of C.S. Price on Saturday, Nov. 14, will offer perspectives from six nationally acclaimed curators and artists: Barbara Johns, chief curator at the Tacoma Art Museum; Nathan Oliveira, artist; Lucinda Parker, Northwest artist; William Robinson, curator of paintings at the Cleveland Art Museum; Roger Saydack, exhibition curator; and Terry St. John, nationally prominent Bay Area artist and former curator at the Oakland Museum of California. For registration information, call the UOMA education office at 346-0966.

Wednesday MusEvenings! will feature programs related to the work of Price and his period, including readings of Northwest poetry by John Haislip, and a lecture on Northwest artists by Lawrence Fong on Nov. 4; a demonstration of palette knife technique by artist Mark Clarke on
Nov. 11; a lecture and performance of historic fiddle music, a Price favorite, by Linda Danielson on Nov. 18; and a gallery talk with Oregon painter Michael Brophy on Dec. 9.

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

The UO Museum of Art is supported in part by grants from the Frances A. Staten Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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

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