Carl Morris: History of Religions
June 28 through September 9, 2007
The 1959 Oregon Centennial Exposition was created to tell “The Oregon Story.” People from Oregon and Oregon and the Pacific Northwest would be attracted to a world’s fair exposition showcasing the state’s contribution to modern industry and business. The invitation was to all nations of the world to visit Portland, and Oregon during a summer long celebration.
Timber, steel, hydroelectric power, architecture, and natural resources were among the “products” exhibited at the exposition. One pavilion had the challenging task of representing the history of religious faiths. A planning committee was formed, an architect for the pavilion was selected, and programs were determined for activities in Portland and throughout the state. Carl Morris, arguably Portland’s most accomplished painter at the time, was selected to paint mural panels, each over eight by eight feet in dimension.
These murals, appropriately monumental in scale, are a series of abstract symbols represented though Morris’ explorations of form, space, light, color and texture. In manner, the murals suggest an aggressive shift from representation (clear rendering of subject forms), to abstraction.
The JSMA is exhibiting the murals for the first time since 1959. Curator Lawrence Fong has also assembled work representing Morris early examples of figurative and landscape paintings. A visitor to Eugene can now view Carl Morris’ 1941 WPA paintings, Lumbering and Agriculture at the Main Post Office, and at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art these spectacular murals and early work June 27 through September 9, 2007.