Winslow Homer the Painter, We Knew — but an Etcher, Too?

I always enjoy visiting the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) in Maine, in good and not-so-good times, and the museum is experiencing both. Its summer exhibition, Winslow Homer: Painter, Etcher, is the first look at Homer’s etchings and their links to his paintings. I loved it and learned a lot. On the dark side, its $100 million expansion seems to have stalled, my spies tell me, because of sluggish fundraising. The museum and the architect, LEVER Architecture — based in Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles — developed a plan for a good-looking addition that would marginalize the ugly main building, built in 1983 and looking the worse for wear.

The new building will be “carbon-free,” a huge waste of money. It’ll also draw from the “worldviews” of the Wabanaki tribes of which crunchy Portlanders are enamored, absurdly so. LEVER describes itself as a firm that “stands up for racial and social justice and works to disrupt the systems that perpetuate inequality.” Lord, help us, or I should say help the museum. For my home, I draw from my own worldview, and I don’t fancy wigwam-living, spearing fish, canoe travel, or museums evoking them.