The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art presents \ photographs of Russian Orthodox cathedrals and churches from the 11th to the 20th centuries in the McKenzie Gallery. On view through August 11, 2013, the photographs were taken during research trips by Professor Emeritus A. Dean McKenzie, who retired in 1988 from the University of Oregon’s Department of Art History.

On Wednesday, July 10, at 5:30 p.m., Professor McKenzie lectures on 2000 years of Russian Orthodox Church architecture.

The photographs of sacred Russian Orthodox sites include cathedrals and churches in a vast array of architectural styles in locations as diverse as St. Petersburg, Russia, and Unalaska, Alaska—a small city 800 miles southwest of Anchorage in the remote Aleutian Island chain. The photographs include the design details closely associated with Russian Orthodox architecture, like tent-shaped roofs, tiered gables, and onion domes.

Structures such as the Cathedral of Saint Vasily the Blessed (popularly known in English as St. Basil’s), located on the Red Square in Moscow will be known to many, while others, such as the Church of Saint Nicholas in Juneau, Alaska, may be less familiar.St. Basil’s represents the culmination of a national style that reached its peak during the 16th century, while the more contemporary Saint Nicholas indicates the extent to which aspects of that style were disseminated on a global scale.

In addition to the installation of eight photographs, visitors can view a more extensive digital photography display of 25 photographs in the gallery.

Examples of native Russian wooden churches, known as kokoshniki, from which the more grand constructions for churches of later centuries evolved, are also included in the installation.

Professor McKenzie, who received his MA from the University of California, Berkeley, and his PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, taught medieval art for over twenty years at the University of Oregon before he and his wife, Lucile, generously donated funds to endow the McKenzie Gallery.

About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public. The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, America, Europe and elsewhere as well as changing special exhibition galleries. The JSMA is one of six museums in the state of Oregon—and the only university museum--accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.

For more information, contact:
Debbie Williamson Smith
Communications Manager
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
1223 University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403
debbiews@uoregon.edu 541.346.0942

Currently on view: Living Legacies: JSMA @ 80, Su Kwak Light Journey: An Odyssey in Paint, Celebrating Oregon Artists: Recent Additions to the Collection, New American Acquisitions, Piero Dorazio & the Responsive Eye, Traditional & Contemporary Korean Art from the Mattielli & JSMA Collections, Chinese Foodways, plus collections galleries devoted to art from China, Korea, Japan, the Americas, Europe and elsewhere.