Portland Now

Welcome readers. Long ago, 1919, amid the ashes of World War I, in Germany, a little school was created called the Bauhaus. Beautiful art, design and new architecture would be created for all the people. It would be affordable and inspiring. It would create a new optimism. It was not however consistent with the atmosphere of fear and chauvinistic heroicism to which the arts were bent by Adolf Hitler. The school was closed in 1933. Many of the Bauhaus teachers fled the country

Renegade academics in the US established the experimental Black Mountain College in a small town in North Carolina. Bauhaus teachers, Josef and Anni Albers joined the school. The college closed in 1956, but the ferment of collaboration of the school continues to echo through the world's art and culture.

Who was there? Robert Rauschenberg, artist who brought visual sampling into modern art. John Cage, who brought random processes into making music. Harvard dropout Buckminster Fuller who created the first geodesic dome at the school, later inventor and futurist who argued that all the material needs of the world's people could be easily met by a fair distribution of resources and sustainable development. Merce Cunningham, dancer and choreographer who decoupled the musical accompaniment from movement in modern dance. Max Dehn, mathematician and pioneer of group theory, and an influence on Fuller. Architect Walter Gropius, from the Bauhaus, who designed the first suburban ranch house, perversely fulfilling the Bauhaus credo; Gropius also taught at Harvard and designed New York's Pan Am building with Portland architect Pietro Belluschi. Composer Lou Harrison, Portland born, who pioneered using the Indonesian gamelan and other traditional Asian instruments in contemporary music. Charles Olson, the creator of postmodern literature and poetry and huge influence on the Beats. Sculptor-engineer Kenneth Snelson, inventor of tensegrity, structures created by the dynamic between rigid elements and elements in tension. Film director Arthur Penn. The school was home to or hosted lectures by many who later became key figures in the creation of abstract expressionist painting and other modern art styles. These include Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Franz Klein, Jacob Lawrence, Ben Shahn, Jack Tworkov, Clemmet Greenburg, MOMA's Bernard Rudofsky, John Chamberlain, Cy Twombly and Ray Johnson. Albert Einstein lectured there as well.

Black Mountain College. A time-place where creative people met, collaborated, exchanged ideas, had fun. They did not know that they would later be the leaders of new creative movements in all fields.

Black Mountain College, then, is Portland, now. From Portland's creative ferment, the great leaders of tomorrow will emerge, people who will change the course of history.

This blog is a selective list of art and cultural events in and about Portland. They represent my view of good work, they represent a place to meet other creative people and engage in conversation. Often they are both. Or sometimes they are just plain unusual events which may spark a new creative vector.