PORTLAND, OR - Opening February 16, the permanent collection dossier presentation Every Picture Tells a Story: Persian Narrative Painting draws from the Portland Art Museum’s Asian art holdings to explore the ways painters translated the classical tales from Persian literature into visual form. The presentation highlights the Sh?hnameh or Book of Kings, the Iranian national epic and a world literature masterpiece often unknown to English readers. This is the first permanent collection dossier presentation organized by Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D., Curator of Asian Art, since she joined the Museum in September 2007.
 
“With more than 42,000 objects in the permanent collection, we have been searching for an exhibition vehicle to bring more works out of the vault and into the galleries,” said Bruce Guenther, Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “Since 2005, we have been developing the notion of a dossier presentation to focus on an aspect of the collection, such as a single artist or a group of works in a single medium. Dossier presentations expose Museum visitors to the richness of the collections. The Museum’s Brantley Gallery will now serve as the Asian collection’s dossier space and this elegant group of little-seen Persian paintings is a fitting first presentation.”
 
Every Picture Tells a Story features 26 works, including a magnificently preserved complete manuscript of the Yusuf and Zulaikha of Jami (a tale of the Biblical Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, as retold by 15^th-century poet Jami). The majority of the brilliantly colored and exquisitely detailed paintings in the exhibition are from Sh?hnameh manuscripts, allowing visitors to trace historical changes in illustration from the 14^th to the 19^th centuries. Other works offer visual interpretations of Khalileh wa Demneh, a collection of animal fables, the Khamseh (Quintet) of the poet Nezami, and other literary classics.  On exhibition February 16 – July 27, 2008.
 
“When we speak of Persian painting and Persian literature, what many Americans do not realize is that we are referring to a broad cultural sphere that extended far beyond the boundaries of modern Iran,” notes Dr. Graybill. “Between the 14th and 19th centuries, the vast region from the Caspian Sea to the Indus Valley and beyond was contested between Mongolian, Turk, Iranian, and Afghan tribes. All of these groups embraced Islam along with Arabic as the language of faith, but for secular purposes they adopted Persian and its literary classics. The great epic and lyrical poetry of Persia lie at the foundation of all of the works in Every Picture Tells a Story—works that were made in cities across Western Asia.”  
 
About the Portland Art Museum’s Asian Art Collection
The Museum has been collecting Asian artworks since 1892. The collection has grown steadily through gifts over the course of the 20^th century, and today totals nearly 4,000 objects.
 
In 1997, the Museum converted the first floor of the Hirsch Wing (built in 1938) into a suite of four galleries specifically designed to showcase objects from the Asian collection. This effectively doubled the amount of space devoted to Asian art and made it possible—for the first time in the Museum's history—to dedicate separate galleries to the arts of China, Japan, and Korea. During the past four years, the Museum has added two more galleries to this suite of rooms to showcase Chinese art.
 
In the last few years, major gifts of Han and pre-Han objects from the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Collection of Early Chinese Art have given new prominence to the Museum’s holdings in this area. The Korean collection, though smaller in size than either of the other two, also covers a relatively broad time span, from the fourth century to the present day. A small but fine group of Islamic and Indian paintings and works of South Asian Buddhist art add geographical breadth to the Asian holdings.
 
About the Portland Art Museum

The seventh oldest museum in the United States and the oldest on the West Coast, the Portland Art Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s holdings and the world’s finest public and private collections. The Museum’s collection of 42,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The collection is distinguished for its holdings of arts of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts. An active collecting institution, dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum devotes 90 percent of its galleries to its permanent collection.  With a membership of more than 23,000 households and serving more than 350,000 visitors annually, the Museum is a premier venue for education in the visual arts. For information on exhibitions and programs, call 503.226.2811 or visit portlandartmuseum.org.