Book paints picture of the first century of Oregon creativity

TWELVE YEARS AGO, while working as docents at the Portland Art Museum, Jody Klevit and Ginny Allen realized there was no single reference book listing Oregon artists. They had been working on a show about the 50th anniversary of Timberline Lodge and were frustrated by the lack of accessible information about artists who had worked in the state.

Now that frustration has borne fruit. "Oregon Painters: The First Hundred Years (1859-1959)," published by the Oregon Historical Society Press, has biographical information on 500 artists who produced significant paintings and drawings in the first century after Oregon became a state. In it, you'll find listings for everyone from the nationally famous - figures such as Carl Morris and C.S. Price - to the regionally remembered - such as Eugene's own Maude Kerns or David McCosh - to the downright obscure.

A Salem painter by the name of Fannie Lane, for example, painted marine- and landscapes and florals. Lane "was an Oregon State Fair entrant from 1895 to 1898," the book notes, offering little other information. The book also contains 96 color illustrations of art works and 42 black-and-white photographs, including photos of various artists.

Klevit and Allen started work in earnest in 1993, compiling a database of about 3,000 painters whose work was mentioned in various sources, from state fair art awards to museum catalogs and newspaper accounts. From that, they winnowed the list down to about 500, choosing artists who contributed in some significant way to Oregon art, whether as teachers or as influential exhibitors.

"We were amazed, at first, at the number of women painters," Klevit said. "In the beginning it was difficult for a woman. They were mostly relegated to china painting."

But the researchers found that many of those china painters were not only producing interesting, original art painted on ceramics, but also were creating traditional easel paintings on canvas. One painter they discovered was Nellie Starr, whose undated painting of Mount Hood adorns the book's dust jacket, along with a more modern painting by Carl Morris. Starr, who died in 1953, exhibited at the Portland Art Museum, the state fair and the Multnomah County Fair. "We were looking at a collection of work owned by the Painting Restoration Studio," Klevit said. `They had a room filed with artists' renditions of Mount Hood. As we began looking at them, no two paintings the same, this painting struck us. Both of us were just awestruck by this work, and when we asked who did it, we had never heard of the artist's name."

Included in the book is American impressionist painter Childe Hassam, who twice traveled to Oregon to visit C.E.S. Wood, the noted Portland soldier, lawyer, poet and artist. The two men traveled to Eastern Oregon in 1908, and both stopped to paint landscapes along the way. Eugene painters in the book are all connected in some way to the University of Oregon. The best known locally are probably Kerns and LaVerne Krause - both of whom contributed their names to art galleries - and David and Ann McCosh. Less well known is Vernon Witham, who was born here and attended school here but now lives in Santa Fe, N.M. While studying at the University of Oregon, Witham became friends with James Ivory, who would go on to become a well-known filmmaker.

Ivory used many of Witham's works in the sets for his movie "Surviving Picasso."

Feb. 20, 2000