Portland Art Museum goes big and bold
The Mark Rothko Pavilion project adds 100,000 square feet of gallery and public space
The Portland Art Museum unveiled the new Mark Rothko Pavilion under a bright red ribbon Thursday. A man on a tall ladder loosened and tightened the ribbon as two museum staff called out so it would drape just right.
Rows of black plastic chairs were lined up under clear skies ahead of a noon ceremony to celebrate the $116 million project, which includes 100,000 square feet of new and renovated space. Southwest Park Avenue and Main Street were closed to cars. Pre-schoolers circled around an empty pedestal in the Park Blocks, where the Abraham Lincoln statue once stood.
I was early so I went to nearby Café Umbria for a latte where it was packed with well-heeled people dressed primarily in black. Most I presumed were heading to the grand opening. A barista with gold earrings was calm under pressure. He skillfully created a foam heart and offered a sleeve in case it was too hot.
The museum’s renovation includes a new sculpture on Southwest 10th Avenue. It’s a giant ring made of bent branches covered in gold leaf, and it’s eye-catching. I asked a young PAM staffer arranging chairs what “the big gold branch” was all about.
“It’s from Italy and it sort of represents a portal, an entrance. A new beginning,” he said. “My art history doesn’t extend that far back so that’s all I really know about it. But today’s event is the big reveal, the reopening of the galleries that have been closed for so long, and the opening of the new Rothko Pavilion.”
Can you pass through this portal, I asked. “I don’t think so,” he said.
Movers and shakers in the art world and local donors made their way into the building next door for a pre-ribbon cutting breakfast. Longtime museum director Brian Ferriso hustled between the now-connected buildings, thanking people as they arrived. “How many times can I thank you?! he asked one couple. “Congratulations, Brian!” others shouted.
The fashion fit the occasion. A woman wore a black wool hat with bobbing feathers and a fitted jacket with elaborate embroidery on the back. Another sported a long red and black Pendleton overcoat with red boots. One man had one a long coat with a cloak that draped over his shoulders and upper arms.
At 10 a.m., the museum café, Coquelico by Providore Fine Foods, opened. Coquelico is French for a vibrant red type of poppy. There was bread piled high on tiered platters and all kinds of imported delicacies stacked on the shelves: French candies, a jar of clementines in syrup and tins of loose leaf Black Leopard Mariage Freres tea. Portland artist Lisa Congdon’s happy graphics, cards and trays were for sale, too. I swiped a paper menu and circled back to the Gold Ring. It’s elevated so I was unable to pass through it.
Eight Rothko paintings are on loan for the “The Art of Mark Rothko” exhibit and will be on view at the museum for the next several years. They represent different periods of the artist’s career. Rothko and his family emigrated from Russia and he attended Lincoln High School. Later, he moved to New York City to pursue a career as a fine artist where he lived until his death in 1970 at age 66.
Museum admission is free until Sunday.
Great addition to Portland’s cultural scene.