Portland Museum of Art, An unexpected find in Maine's Coastal City
Written: Dec 02 '04 (Updated Apr 27 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Had more than I expected.
Cons: Was disappointed that there were no audio phones for the permanent collections.
The Bottom Line: We were fortunate to find this museum in that the work of the new building and and restoration of the old is just recently completed.
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| popsrocks's Full Review: Portland Museum of Art |
I recently spent a couple of days in Portland Maine while looking at a school for my daughter. I always think of the Maine coast as Acadia National Park, fishing towns, light houses, whale-watching, lobster, and wonderful seafood restaurants. I never gave much thought to the arts except for some summer theatre we catch on Mt. Dessert Island.
When in Portland we checked out the downtown Old Port area and read some local maps from the Portland Information Center that had the Portland Museum of Art clearly marked as a "go see" site. ..so we decided to "go see" it.
This is in the city center area known as The Arts District where we did see, though never explored, a couple of other museums including the Children's Museum of Portland and Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art. I read that the Children's Museum is worth a look.
In driving around the building when first looking for parking, there are public parking garages, it looked to be a mix of architecture in shape, material, size and design. I learned more about that later on after going inside.
We happened to be there on a Friday night when the entrance fee is waved. You can still leave a donation even though it is not asked for. The usual admission prices are $8 for adults, $6 Seniors, and $2 for ages 6-17. Times vary so check before going. I do seem to remember that they were open late a few days of the week. I like that.
What's in the Place
For the sake of brevity, because I have a lot to convey about my experience and opinions, I will give you a few words of "advertising" from the museums web site.
The Museum's collection contains more than 15,000 fine and decorative works of art dating from the 18th century to the present. Works by artists such as Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, Louise Nevelson, John Singer Sargent, Andrew Wyeth, and Marguerite Zorach showcase the unique artistic heritage of the United States and Maine. The major European movements, from Impressionism through Surrealism, are represented by the Scott M. Black, Albert Otten, and Joan Whitney Payson Collections, which include works by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Ren Magritte, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, among others. The Museum's sculpture collection includes a remarkable range of work, from Benjamin Paul Aker's The Dead Pearl Diver (1858), the Museum's first acquisition, and a comprehensive collection of neoclassical sculpture by Franklin Simmons to a mobile by Alexander Calder (1948), Gaston Lachaise's Garden Figure (1935), a spectrum of works by William Zorach, and an enviable collection of bronzes by European masters from Auguste Rodin to Henry Moore.
Three Buildings As One
The Portland Museum is actually a group of three architecturally different buildings that were built at different times in the history of our nation.
The McLellan House
The McLellan House was designed and built as a Federal Style home in 1801. It was transformed into a museum in 1908. This is important to art lovers and collectors in that it was an early attempt to start amassing work of the day's American artists and to collect European art for Americans to study. When I went through it, rather quickly, I saw that it is now almost completely devoid of art work and furniture. It is the house itself, it's architecture and use of detail, colours and patterns that are the art display. It was interesting for me to simply look at the house design and structure rather than a complete room tied together with furniture and fashion for physical use and pleasure of the human body and mind. One of the downstairs rooms had a few pieces of furniture. In a side room were computers where information about the house can be looked up and studied. The information not only enlightens to the structure and 19th century design but also to the people who lived in it and their connection along with the houses connection to earlier collected works of art. I wish I had more time to work on the computers. Though they are easy to use, there are just a few of them where I was and I had just a few minutes to use mine before we had to leave. I did get to see this section of the museum from outside and it stands tall and is magnificent looking. Try and get a good look at it if you can.
Beaux-Arts L.D.M. Sweat Memorial Galleries
The only transition point between the Mclellen House and the next part of the museum is a doorway. You go from from detailed wood construction to massive and imposing stone that vaults up to skylit domes. Though the settings hold the same sense of equal balance, it is an interesting progression to behold. This, the second part of the museum, is the Beaux-Arts L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries. I was curious as to what the LDM was. I found out it was named for Lorenzo de Medici. Now I did remember that name from a visit to Florence, Italy two years back. He was a strong ruler in the Tuscan part of Italy but was best known, in this case, as a patron of the arts. He lived in the 15th century at the same time as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci and supported their work.
This building was constructed in 1911 solely for the housing of the ever-growing collection of art in this southern Maine city. I did not get to see this structure from the outside. This Beaux-Arts part of the museum exudes a strong and imposing look though, in square footage, it didn't seem too much larger than the McLellen House.
The Beaux-Arts part of the museum now holds the treasures early collectors found important to acquire for future generations. Here you'll find the first great artists of America like John Singer Sargent, Frederick Church, and Windslow Homer.
One gallery had about a dozen of Homer's works beautifully displayed in a room that was dedicated to his art only. The room that housed his work was intimate and, with the paintings being displayed in the round, made it easy to compare the works.
The Beaux-Arts section also had compositions from these same artists displaying the countryside and shores of Maine. Other parts of the United States were painted by other artists like Robert Salmon and Thomas Cole another of the Hudson School of artists as Church was. This seemed like a fine collection.
This museum is unlike any other American museum I know in that it studies American art and takes it through stages in the three buildings. Another part of the Beaux Arts galleries has decorative arts. I didn't see any of this but I was impressed by the sculptures in another of the galleries.
Side story. At one point one of my daughters, the younger one, did not feel well and was off sitting by herself. I was exploring the galleries with my older daughter. We were in a rotunda with marble sculptures by Benjamin Paul Akers. His "Dead Pearl Diver is magnificent. You can walk right up to and study it up close. The lighting in this room is perfect. As we turned the corner into another rotunda, my older daughter saw a particular sculpture that dominated the room and knew her younger sister would have to see it. She went and got her. When the younger came into the room a huge smile went on her face as she saw a bigger than life sculpture of Ulysses S Grant. He happens to be a favorite figure of hers. Ha, we still haven't gotten to his tomb on the west side of upper Manhattan that really is much closer to where we live, but we did bump into him here. It was almost like he was standing guard over the entrance to Homers Gallery just behind him.
Charles Shipman Payson Building
Stepping into the Charles Shipman Payson building was like stepping into a great lighted modern hall. This is considered a post modern structure in relation to arts. It was completed in 2002. It was designed to blend with the other two older structures. I found it interesting in how it was done and the reasoning. The front of the building outside is a high strong form of brick with circular cut outs. I personally didn't think this part was that attractive. It seems to me that is was made to depict the urban construction of the town. It has a factory look to it and I suppose that, with the wharf area I saw earlier with large warehousing, this was the connection. What continues behind the front facade I found exceptionally well designed. The roof line drops down in a series of steps to the height of the earlier constructed buildings of the Beaux-Arts and Mclellen House. Lined up across the top of each of the descending roof line are open glass portals that look to be the top of lighthouses. The architect, Henry N. Cobb ,wanted "Portland Light" to flood the galleries below. It seems he realized his goal.
Though I brought you up through the years in my walk through the museum, from the Federal to Beaux Arts to the post modern Charles Shipman Payson Building, you actually enter through the main entrance in the front of the new Payson Building.
Walking in you see an open and bright area that draws the eye up and then in. It's here where the information desk is, coat check and a kiosk for picking up audio phones that describe the temporary special collections. I was disappointed that they had nothing at all for the permanent collection or to further educate about the three buildings, their designs and inter-related functions.
They do provide museum tours at selected times.
Special Exhibitions
To the right was a show Becoming a Nation. In the gallery were paintings, sculptures and furniture of early America. To give you a concise idea of what it had here's a news clipping.
(Portland, Maine) Becoming a Nation: Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State will be on view at the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine from November 4, 2004 through January 2, 2005. The exhibition features 170 objects from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State one of the nations least-known cultural treasures that constitute one of the most extraordinary collections of Americana in the world.
The exhibition, curated by Dr. Jonathan Fairbanks, presents some of the finest examples of American paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and furniture of the golden age of American decorative and fine arts, from approximately 1750-1825.
I found this show interesting from the point of view of history in that some "sets" depicted when this furniture was used, who was there and what was happening at the time.
Another side note. I am now waiting on edge to be told what date I will be invited to the White House this month for a tour with it all decorated for the Christmas Holidays. I hope I'll be posting a review of the White House soon.
My wife, daughter and I spent a lot of time at an exhibit that was done by children from the King Middle School in Portland. My wife teaches art to the same grade level. It was an interesting theme and the works of these 8th graders were outstanding.
The students were to study the work of Norman Rockwell's illustrations of the four freedoms. I was fortunate enough to see these at his museum in Massachusetts a few years back. The freedoms being that of the Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear, Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of Worship were then studied by the students as they pertained to Americans in the 1940s after they heard the words that inspired the paintings as said by Franklin Roosevelt. The students were then to use magazines and such to make a collage expressing how those paintings of freedoms pertain to each of them today. I was impressed by the emotion, feeling and insight in the student's compositions that covered many walls of the public areas. I'm estimating that there were about a hundred of them. I believe that this kind of project and use of public space in a museum is good for the young students of today. I applaud the museums curator and board for advancing this and other projects like it.
Getting Around.
This downstairs area also has a restaurant. It offered sandwiches, wraps and such. No table service. Clean rest rooms were here too. A very slow to come elevator could take you up to all the levels. I believe there were four levels.
The Payton Building's use of open area and levels was interesting if not a bit confusing at times. I must admit that I did not have much more than an hour and a half to try and absorb so much and to also get my bearings. This museum has a lot to offer.
From the main entrance you can see the museum store that has no walls. I suppose this makes displaying a bit more difficult but the room or rather area is rather large and holds everything you might expect in a museum store. This happens to be an easy museum for those in wheelchairs to navigate. Elevators are easy to get to and the museum makes good use of open areas for getting around.
More in the Charles Shipman Payson Building
After the School children's show we split up. With time waning we all had our favorites to try and see. I went directly up to the forth floor. As the elevator opened I was greeted by a show of small and large prints of photographs that were hung around the perimeter of the room. In the center was open space that allowed light from above to flow to the large room below. The show Street Smart: The Photographs of Garry Winogrand was stimulating but I did see it on the fly. I wish I had more time to study his work. Many woman were in his photos.
From that level I was able to look down to an open gallery just below. I saw my wife there as she was studying oversized art works on that level.
We both were together to see paintings by the Wyeths, MC and Andrew, and other artists. We studied one of Andrew's works, that of boats and fisherman at a dock. It's an amazing illustration. You are looking down, as from a fixed point above a floating dock at low tide. What I found interesting was that they actually displayed this painting below eye level making the body, head and eye look down as if it were the real scene. We saw a number of famous artists works in the new building including Renoir, Degas and Monet.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed the little time we had for this museum. There's an old saying by theatre artists, inn owners, and ha, probably French restauranteurs that goes something like, "Leave them wanting more". Well it seems like the artists and curator of this museum certainly did the trick on me. The Portland Museum of Art, a very pleasant and unexpected surprise. I want to see more.
Portland, Maine
Portlamd Head Light
Howard Johnson's Hotel, Portland
DiMillo's Floating Restaurant Good Portland Dining
Coastal Maine, One man's view
Bar Harbor, Maine
Acadia National Park
A Canadian side trip from Maine's Acadia National Park
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Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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