The Fountain Gallery was a major hub of Portland’s downtown arts scene for much of the mid-20th century. In 1961, Arlene Schnitzer (yes, the same Arlene Schnitzer that the theater is named after) opened the venue, which hosted art shows, lectures, poetry readings, and performances. It wasn’t Portland’s first art gallery, but Arlene and her husband Harold Schnitzer were instrumental in putting substantial funding and institutional support behind artists in Portland.

“She helped the banks, the law firms, and the businesses to realize that they needed to support local artists,” says her son Jordan Schnitzer. “That was true of music, dance, and theater, too, but her role was visual arts.” 

According to Jordan Schnitzer, Portland’s art community was quite different in his parents’ era. “The art community relative to the greater metropolitan area was nothing like it is today,” he says. “It was much more insular and smaller. Not elitist in any way. These people were down-to-earth. But there wasn’t a lot of art consciousness on the part of the citizens, as there is today.” Schnitzer says that his mother used her resources, social skills, and connections to get eyes on art and money into artists’ pockets.

A Fountain of Creativity: Oregon’s 20th Century Artists and the Legacy of Arlene Schnitzer provides a window into the Portland art scene during the beginning and middle of the 20th century. The exhibit features work from Pacific Northwest artists like Carl Morris, William Givler, Hilda Morris, and others, all of whom were supported by Schnitzer during their careers. 

Even if you don’t recognize their names, you’ve probably seen their work on the walls of the Portland Art Museum, in the lobby of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, or anywhere else that prominently displays established local artists. A Fountain of Creativity is an “oh, that guy!” of Pacific Northwest Art, and it’s good to see the artists contextualized.

The exhibit also paints a picture of the growing artistic movements in Oregon from the early 1900s up until 1961. Walking through, you can witness an artistic evolution that gradually bends toward more contemporary notions. It starts with early 20th century landscapes and social realism (e.g., art that depicts everyday people and real-life situations in a way that does not romanticize its subject matter) and early modernism. It’s not too long until you’re looking at non-representational works from the 1940s that could have been painted yesterday. The view takes on an ambitious scope, and even if Portland’s art scene used to be smaller, as Jordan Schnitzer says, it was still obviously extant and thriving.

The subject matter in A Fountain of Creativity is fascinating: It shows how a growing city and artistic scene developed and evolved. But the subject matter is too big for a single room at the OHS, and the exhibit seems to be sticking an entire museum’s (or multiple museums) worth of content and ideas into a single chamber. The artists featured could each have their gallery (and they did, at the Fountain), and it’s frustrating to see whole oeuvres or artistic movements reduced to fewer than half a dozen paintings.

The exhibit is also notable for what it leaves out. Focusing on a single major gallery is all well and good, but the Fountain was never the whole of the Portland or Oregon arts scene. Even if Portland’s artistic life was smaller in the twentieth century than it is now, parties and exhibitions at galleries like the Fountain were only part of it. It would have been even more informative to see what was happening here in decades past. 

That context wouldn’t have just been interesting in its own right, it would also have provided important context for understanding the Fountain Gallery and Arlene Schnitzer’s legacy. Brief biographies of artists and dates of major historical events are fine, but a deeper dive on the role of galleries and arts patrons in a larger ecosystem of commerce and culture would have been welcome.

But, this is ultimately saying that a museum exhibit is a bit too museum-y. Compression and editing is what these institutions do. Fortunately, A Fountain of Creativity will eventually be much bigger than what’s on display now, as in October a second part of the exhibit is scheduled to open, which will focus on the 1960s and onward. 

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A Fountain of Creativity: Oregon’s 20th Century Artists and the Legacy of Arlene Schnitzer is currently on view at the Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park, through January 2, 2025, tickets and info at ohs.org. A second part of the exhibit opens on October 25, and continues through May 4, 2025.