Portland Art Museum - Modern Era

Modern Era

The Portland Art Museum celebrated its centennial in 1992, which was marked by successful negotiations to purchase the Masonic Temple, now known as the Mark Building. The purchase was completed in 1994, the same year that a capital campaign to finance a refurbishment of the Main Building began. This ambitious project included improving the galleries, reinstalling the permanent collection, and equipping the building with a climate control system. The refurbishment allowed the museum to host the most successful exhibition in its history: Imperial Tombs of China, which brought 430,000 visitors to the museum the following year.

A major renovation of the Hoffman Wing was completed in 2000 and added more than 50,000 square feet (5,000 m2) of new gallery space to the museum. The first gallery space addition since 1939, the new galleries included the Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art and the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art. The renovation was funded by the largest capital campaign ever undertaken by a cultural organization in the State of Oregon, which raised $45 million.

In 2001, the Portland Art Museum announced the largest single acquisition in its history when it purchased the private collection of renowned New York art critic Clement Greenberg. The 159 works by artists such as Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, and Anthony Caro substantially enhanced the museum's permanent collection of 20th century modern and contemporary art. To house this new collection, the museum renovated the former Masonic temple, transforming it into the 141,000-square-foot (13,100 m2) Mark Building, which opened in October 2005. The renovation added the six-floor, 28,000-square-foot (2,600 m2) Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, the largest exhibition space for modern and contemporary art in the region. The Mark Building also houses the 33,000 volume Crumpacker Family Library, meeting spaces, ballrooms, and administrative offices.

Now with a collection consisting of some 40,000 objects, the Portland Art Museum is one of the leading cultural institutions in the Pacific Northwest. The museum is currently under the leadership of Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. Director since 2006. In 2007, Vincent van Gogh's 1884 painting, The Ox-Cart, was donated to the museum, becoming the first work of that artist in a Northwest museum.