Ken Greenleaf can be reached at ken.greenleaf@gmail.com.
EVOLUTION: FIVE DECADES OF PRINTMAKING BY DAVID C. DRISKELL | through January 17, 2010 | at Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland | 207.775.6148
Related:
The thinker at mid century, Growing pains, Summer people, More 
- The thinker at mid century
A long time ago (say 70 years), in a galaxy far, far away (New York), a tired band of rebels ached to be the Next Big Thing.
- Growing pains
Although no one piece in this spartan biennial is lacking in value, the collective effect is one destined to get lost in the Rolodex.
- Summer people
Ever wonder why there is so much professional-level art made and shown in Maine, a state with a total population less than that of many minor cities? One answer is that following the fame of people like Winslow Homer, creative types flocked to Maine, often to artists' colonies.
- Growing Maine art
Long ago an art critic of my acquaintance remarked that New York was a border town to Europe, and until fairly recently that was true. Artistic ideas would be born in Europe, often France, and migrate slowly across the Atlantic and take root.
- Idealist views
The path through my various responsibilities has led me to the Portland Museum several times in recent weeks, and along most of the floors. While passing through the Julia Margaret Cameron exhibit of photography I was struck by thoughts about templates created by dominant illusions, and how a consistent sense of an ideal world flowed through Cameron's work.
- Growth + maturity
The Phoenix 's first 10 years in Portland roughly bracket the period during which I stopped writing about art.
- Looking DuBack
Looking backward, history seems a whole lot more orderly than it does while you're living it.
- Hope and energy
As we launch into the next decade with a collapsing economy and apocalyptic themes bleeding into every facet of culture, it's particularly hard to be optimistic about the arts, as yes, they are often the first to go.
- Cut it out
"Collage: Piecing it Together" at the Portland Museum of Art is a somewhat rambling look at a process that came into use in the beginning of the 20th century as a cubist process bringing images, colors, and shapes together that were previously used elsewhere.
- An idyll examined
After 36 films and more than 40 years of filmmaking, Frederick Wiseman has probably come as close as any director to capturing this American life in all its breadth and nuance.
- Re-structuring
Three large oil paintings overwhelm the lobby at the Portland Museum of Art, introducing the show "Division and Discovery: Recent Works by Frederick Lynch," a beautiful and meditative collection found on the fourth floor of the museum.
- Less
Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, Culture and Lifestyle, History, Painting, More
, Culture and Lifestyle, History, Painting, Visual Arts, Pablo Picasso, Art History, Cultural History, Portland Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, Less
