Posted Feb 09, 2020 By Jamie Hale | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Lucinda Parker, courtesy of the artist and Russo Lee Gallery
You've seen Mount St. Helens from afar, or maybe on a trail up close. You may have seen it before it erupted or long after its north face exploded.
But you've never seen Mount St. Helens quite like this.
On Feb. 8, the Portland Art Museum will open a new exhibition called "Volcano!" dedicated to the southwest Washington mountain that erupted in dramatic fashion 40 years ago this spring.
With modern art, photography and some of the oldest surveyor sketches around, the exhibition puts a broad spotlight on St. Helens – before, during and after its famous eruption on May 18, 1980.
"Basically, the exhibition is a survey of images of Mount St. Helens in art," curator Dawson Carr said. "The exhibition is going to take people through one big cycle in the life of a volcano."
Carr usually curates exhibitions of European art before 1900, but as a self-professed volcano nut he couldn't pass up the chance to dig into the art portraying one of the biggest eruptions in modern history.
Albert Bierstadt, courtesy of The L.D. "Brink" Brinkman Collection
An 1889 painting of Mount St. Helens by Albert Bierstadt.
Emmet Gowin, Courtesy of Pace/MacGill
A 1983 photograph by Emmet Gowin titled "Debris Flow at the Northern Base of Mount St. Helens, Looking South" that will appear in "Volcano!"
Henk Pander, City of Portland Public Art Collection, courtesy of the Regional Arts and Culture Council
This 1981 painting of the Mount St. Helens eruption by Henk Pander belongs to the City of Portland.
While initially conceived as a more general exhibition of volcanic imagery from across time and around the world, the museum quickly settled on the idea of focusing on a single local volcano instead, and one that Pacific Northwest residents know particularly well.
Both images and ash from the erupting volcano spread around the world in 1980, making St. Helens a household name globally. In the decades since, those who live near the mountain have grown to know its new, flatter profile and the desolate flanks still recovering from disaster.
The three faces of the mountain – before, during and after the eruption – have offered a wide variety of artistic inspiration. In the "Volcano!" exhibit, you'll find dreamy paintings made in the 19th century, when newly arrived white settlers captured its perfectly conical peak, as well as paintings made in recent years that take a more modern and sometimes abstract approach.
That variety of styles also demonstrates the broad appeal of volcanoes, which have captivated artists for hundreds of years, Carr said.
"They're so beyond human power and imagination," he said of volcanic eruptions. "They're threatening, but at the same time they're so awesome and visually impressive that you have fear mixed with a kind of pleasurable terror."
That mixed emotion was once referred to as "the sublime," Carr said, and was applied to the famously dark and dramatic paintings of the eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius by artists like Joseph Wright and Pierre-Jacques Volaire.
Some of the Mount St. Helens art in the exhibition shares a similar darkness, but many paintings are done in bright, vibrant colors instead, some even reflecting the urban environments that were so close to (though never truly threatened by) the eruption.
The exhibition primarily features work from Pacific Northwest artists, including painters Lucinda Parker, Henk Pander and George Johanson.
Portland Art Museum
Inside the new "Volcano!" exhibition at the Portland Art Museum.
Emmet Gowin, Courtesy of Pace/MacGill
A 1983 photograph titled "Ash over New Snow, The South Flank of Mount St. Helens, Washington" by Emmet Gowin.
George Johanson, courtesy of the artist
This colorful 1984 painting of the Mount St. Helens eruption by George Johanson will appear in "Volcano!" at the Portland Art Museum.
Those paintings stand in stark contrast to some of the fine art photography in the exhibit, including work by Emmett Gowin, Frank Gohlke and Marilyn Bridges, much of which shows the volcano in the years immediately following its eruption. Apocalyptic imagery fills the frames, which highlight debris flows, a smoking crater and ash-covered snow. Rich textures draw the eye to what is ultimately a scene of utter destruction.
"These photographs of the aftermath are just as apocalyptic as the eruption itself," Carr said.
It can be easy to get sucked into images of destruction, but in the end "Volcano!" showcases the mountain's present and future – particularly the astonishingly fast return of life that has surprised even the researchers tasked with studying it.
Mount St. Helens has undergone many transformations in a short time, and continues to change before our eyes. That's exactly what makes it such a captivating artistic subject, said Ian Gillingham, spokesman for the Portland Art Museum.
"The way that the mountain has regenerated itself has been shocking," Gillingham said. "I'm hoping through these different artistic views you get an idea of what's happening through the changes in the biology and morphology of the mountain."
It may ultimately be a story of regrowth, but it's the art inspired by the mountain's eruption that remains the most powerful.
People are just drawn to images of catastrophe, and to erupting volcanoes in particular. There's a reason the new exhibit isn't built around any of the other volcanoes nearby, say, Mount Hood or the Three Sisters.
Volcanic eruptions are simply "stupendous events" to depict, Carr said. "They're really beyond the shadow of any doubt the most visually spectacular of nature's displays of power."
“Volcano!” will be on display from Feb. 8 to May 17, 2020, at the Portland Art Museum. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $20 for adults, $17 for students and seniors and free for kids. The museum is located at 1219 S.W. Park Ave., Portland. Get more information online at portlandartmuseum.org or call 503-226-2811.
--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB
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