Lecture Series


Past Lectures

 

An Architecture of Many Scales: The Buildings and Landscapes of John Yeon

A Lecture by Randy Gragg

Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 5:30 p.m.
177 Lawrence Hall, 1190 Franklin Boulevard
Reception follows

Few architects have influenced so many facets of a region as John Yeon (1910-1994). Yeon is most widely remembered as an architect, in particular for a series of innovative houses—most prominently, the 1937 Aubrey Watzek House—that drew an international spotlight to regional modernism in the Pacific Northwest. [read more]

 

The Naturalization of American Modern Architecture, circa 1940

A Lecture by Keith Eggener, PhD

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 5:45 p.m.
177 Lawrence Hall, 1190 Franklin Boulevard
Reception follows

Americans during the interwar years often expressed concern with modern architecture’s national origins, branding it either an unwelcome European import or a product of their own native genius. [read more]

John Yeon and the High Stakes of Regionalism in the 1930s

 

A Lecture by Barry Bergdoll

Sunday, May 14, 2017 at 2:00pm – 3:00pm
At the Portland Art Museum

Bergdoll explores the work of John Yeon within the context of the 1930s and complex issues of regional architecture and American identity. Yeon’s work will be considered in relationship to well-known architects of the period including Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, and Marcel Breuer.
[Event has passed]

 

An Architecture of Many Scales: The Oregon Legacy of John Yeon

A Lecture by Randy Gragg

Sunday, June 11, 2017 at 2:00pm – 3:00pm
At the Portland Art Museum

Few architects have influenced so many facets of a region as John Yeon (1910-1994). Yeon is most widely remembered as an architect, in particular for a series of innovative houses—most prominently, the 1937 Aubrey Watzek House—that drew an international spotlight to regional modernism in the Pacific Northwest.
[Event has passed]

 

A Closer Look: John Yeon as Collector

A Lecture by Dawson W. Carr Ph.D. and Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D.

Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 6:00pm – 7:00pm
At the Portland Art Museum

Join exhibition curators Maribeth Graybill and Dawson Carr for a close look at some of the masterworks from John Yeon’s wide-ranging collection of Asian and European Art. A self-taught connoisseur, Yeon approached collecting with a designer’s eye, seeking out objects of the finest craftsmanship to adorn and complement his architectural interiors.[Event has passed]

 

Remembering John Yeon

A Lecture by Richard Louis Brown

Sunday, July 23, 2017 at 2:00pm – 3:00pm
At the Portland Art Museum

Visionary Architect, conservationist, and collector John Yeon was a passionate advocate for causes he believed in, yet in private he was soft spoken and courtly, with a sly wit and magnetic presence. Richard Louis Brown, Yeon’s companion for nearly 30 years, will share stories that will illuminate the life and work of one of Oregon’s most original personalities.[event has passed]

 

Why Landscape Is a Noun (not a verb)

A Lecture by Laurie Olin

Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 2:00pm – 3:00pm
At the Portland Art Museum

For acclaimed landscape architect Laurie Olin, there is more to landscape than folks with a truck planting shrubs. For thousands of years, humans have interacted with their environment: loving it, fearing it, changing it, and considering it a subject for art, philosophy, preservation, and recreation. It shapes us as we shape it.
[event has passed]

 

John Yeon and the Museum

A Lecture by Melinda McVay, Ph.D.

Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 6:30pm – 7:30pm
At the Portland Art Museum

In addition to the houses John Yeon designed that helped define regional modernism in the Pacific Northwest, he also created pristine, serine environments for museums in Portland, San Francisco, and Kansas City. Art historian Melinda McVay’s talk examines this lesser known aspect of Yeon’s work, in particular his interpretation of Asian architectural settings for museum displays.[Event has passed]