OAKS PARK PENTIMENTO

Photographs by Jim Lommasson
New American Art Union

November 6 - December 20, 2009
Reception: Friday November 6, 6 - 9pm

New American Art Union
922 SE Ankeny St. PDX 97214
Thursday - Sunday: Noon - 6pm
503.231.8294/naau@earthlink.net
www.newamericanartunion.com

Over two days in 1982, Jim Lommasson photographed the strange and beautiful paintings that decorated the center column of the historic carousel at Oaks Amusement Park in Portland, Oregon. The original carousel images were a collection of Edwardian-era scenes—a little blond girl clutching a rag doll, a corseted woman beneath a parasol, “exotic” renderings of Arabs and Native Americans—painted by German and Italian immigrants around 1912. In 1944, two itinerant artists were hired to paint over the eighteen panels with depictions of such local landmarks as the Columbia River Highway, Mount Hood, and the Oregon Coast.
Eventually, the surfaces of these new paintings began to flake and fade, revealing parts of the original images in unusual and unexpected ways. Each new image created a completely accidental, even surreal, story about the juxtaposition of two generations of paintings.

This exhibit coincides with the release of Lommasson's new book, Oaks Park Pentimento: Portland's Lost and Found Carousel Art with Introduction by Inara Verzemnieks and Afterword by Prudence Roberts.

More information can be found at:
http://oaksparkpentimento.blogspot.com/