Coming to the Portland Art Museum - skin pictures

BruceGuenther.jpgThe chief curator at the Portland Art Museum, Bruce Guenther, sports a full back tattoo -- thin, Agnes Martinesque lines wrapping him, like heartstrings pulled out. (Update: Faulty memory alert - not Anges Martin-like. See related post for photo.)

It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that his museum is host to a skin show. From the press release:

This summer, the Portland Art Museum will present a unique visitor experience exploring the art of tattoo and the impact of this artistic practice in the local community.

Beginning today, individuals who got their tattoos in Portland or people who have a tattoo and currently reside in the area are invited to share images of their tattoo/s on the museum's flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/groups/markingportland. The Museum's curators will review the submitted images and select some to be presented inside the galleries.

It's getting-to-know-you, Guenther style. Because tattoos are not a regional phenomenon, it's arbitrary to confine contributions to his city's limits. The rule means PAM will not be able to exhibit a photo of the ultimate Northwest tattoo. It exists on the flesh of Patrick Attenasio, who is not from Portland. He happened to see Alfredo Arreguin's painting, A Hero's Journey reproduced online and decided to have it inked onto his arm.

tattooraymondcarver.jpg

In the center is a poem titled Last Fragment by Arreguin's friend, the late Raymond Carver:

And did you get what

you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.

A Hero's Journey appeared on the cover of Carver's final book of poems, A New Path to the Waterfall.

Below are few images from PAM's tattoo flickr pool I find especially fetching. Those who peruse it will notice a photo of Guenther's back is not among the entries.

(First says, Live Learn)

livelearn.jpgtattooorca.jpgPeanutstattoo.jpg

Related: In the New York Times - Seafarers' Memoirs Written on Skin, here.


May 26, 2009 4:00 AM | | Comments (3) |

3 Comments

By David Flores on July 10, 2009 10:19 AM

This exhibit along with the Escher exhibit brought me into the museum. Escher exceeded all my expectations and really made the trip worth while. In fact the whole museum was interesting.

I must say that this so called "tattoo exhibit" was pretty sad. I have seen Myspace profiles that better represent the tattoo community in Portland. Bad tattoos on Pseudo celebrities, wannabes, and self proclaimed "freaks". This was amateur hour at its worst.

There are so many shops and so many great tattoo artists in this town and somehow no one thought to incorporate any of them in this exhibit. Instead you got checker boy. Good Job art muesuem. Next time maybe enlist the help of someone who has a clue.

By Tommer on May 27, 2009 6:14 PM

Brooklyn artist and writer Shelley Jackson published her short story Ineradicable Stain by soliciting 2095 volunteers, each of whom has a word of the story tattooed on themselves somewhere. This is the only place the story is published and only the participants have copies of the full text. As we age and die, the work disappears word by word. See: http://www.ineradicablestain.com/skin.html

By LaValle on May 27, 2009 6:37 AM

BG's tattoos can be seen at...
http://www.bruceguenther.net/

Leave a comment

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Another Bouncing Ball
This blog continues Art To Go, which I wrote as the art critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, beginning at the end of 2007 and continuing through March 15, 2009. ABB is an exploration of art in Seattle that extends outward, both geographically and by topic, touching on art, politics, literature, dance and whatever it is that the cat drags in. Its title comes from a poem by Delmore Schwartz, The Ballad of the Children of the Czar, specifically, "The ground on which the ball bounces/ Is another bouncing ball."
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Regina Hackett ... is the former art critic for the former Seattle P-I. I loved that job every day, but it's gone and I've moved on. As they say in the movies, to infinity and beyond.
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