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The primary focus of our American art collection is the paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and ceramics of the Pacific Northwest. The American and regional collection includes the largest public collection of paintings by Morris Graves. With works by Maude Kerns, C.S. Price, and Mark Tobey, the collection offers fine examples of modernism in American painting.
There are significant works by Peter Voulkos, Rudy Autio, and other ceramists. The David McCosh Archives comprise nearly 1,600 works of art and historic documents. Recent additions to the regional collection include Mount Rainier at Sunset, Sunset at Mt. Hood, and Mt. Shasta, all by the important, turn-of-the-century Portland painter, Eliza Barchus.
Another distinctive component of the American collection is a group of paintings and drawings from the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Now on View in the Schnitzer Gallery for American and Regional Art:
Not Far From Here: Modern and Contemporary Art in America
Explore ideas that helped shape modern art. By the mid-twentieth century there was a blurring of distinct art mediums and an acceptance of craft and folk art as fine art. More recent contemporary works are included that introduce the influences that rapid changes in society and a developing culture of technology and design have had on creativity.
Read biographical information about the artists on view, as written by Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art associate director Lawrence Fong and museum intern Robyne Miles.
This exhibition is sponsored by a grant from the Museum Loan Network—a national collection-sharing program funded by the James S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Pew Memorial Trusts, and administered by MIT’s Office of the Arts. Additional support was provided by Jordan Schnitzer and his family foundation. Thanks to our gracious lenders of art including the Brooklyn Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Seattle Art Museum, Jordan Schnitzer and his family foundation, and Monika and Jonathan Brand.