Phyllis Yes collection, 1976-2003

Overview of the Collection

Title
Phyllis Yes collection
Dates
1976-2003 (inclusive)
Quantity
4 boxes
Collection Number
OLPb197YES
Summary
Collection of materials related to the professional work, teaching, and life of Portland-based artist and former Lewis and Clark College art professor, Dr. Phyllis Yes.
Repository
Lewis & Clark College, Special Collections and Archives

Aubrey R. Watzek Library
615 S. Palatine Hill Rd.
Portland, OR
97219
Telephone: 5037687758
Fax: 5037687282
archives@lclark.edu
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Languages
English

Historical NoteReturn to Top

Phyllis Yes is an Oregon-based artist and playwright known for challenging gender roles by "feminizing" stereotypically masculine objects such as paint cans, hand guns, ladders, hammers, and cars. Among Yes's best known works are "Por She," a 1967 Porsche Yes painted over with lace rosettes and exhibited at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in New York City in 1984, "Paint Can with Brush," and her epaulette jewlery series.

Yes was born Phyllis Richardson in Red Wing, Minnesota, in 1941. She earned her B.A. in art from Luther College, her M.A. in art from the University of Minnesota, and her Ph.D. in art from the University of Oregon in 1978. Yes went on to teach art at the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil, Western Oregon University, Oregon State University, and Lewis and Clark College. At Lewis and Clark Yes served as Chair of the Art Department, Dean of Arts and Humanities, and became a professor emerita of art, painting, and drawing in 1998. Yes's work has appeared in over 130 exhibitions over the span of her career. She has exhibited her work in galleries including the Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in New York City, the Nishiazabu Asa Cloth Gallery in Tokyo, Japan, and the Sandra Walters Gallery in Hong Kong, China. Yes has been honored with awards including an Oregon Arts Commission Grant in 1986, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1987, and a People's Choice Award, 2013 Legends of the Autobahn, in Monterey, California. Yes currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

This collection includes biographical and teaching materials, publications, newspaper clippings, and various ephemera related to the professional and academic work of artist Phyllis Yes. Biographical materials include the artist's C.V.s, professional, personal, and academic correspondence, a chapter from her unpublished autobiography, syllabi for several art courses Yes taught during her career at Lewis and Clark College, and newspaper clippings and articles mentioning Yes's work and accomplishments from publications including The Wall Street Journal, Glamour Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and Willamette Week. Also in the collection are bound publications featuring Yes's work including ArtWeek Magazine, ArtQuake Magazine, Visual Dialog, The New York Women's Foundation Commemorative Journal, Ornament Magazine, and the NW Gallery Art Magazine. Ephemera in the collection includes brochures and pamphlets from Yes's exhibitions in galleries such as the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in New York City, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, and the Freed Gallery in Lincoln City, Oregon. Media in the collection includes slides and photographs of Yes's work, as well as a VHS of a TV program special featuring Yes, titled, "Women Seen on Television."

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

Biographical Material, 1960-1980Return to Top

Container(s) Description Dates
Box Folder
1 1
Phyllis Yes C.V.s
1975-2005
1 2
Phyllis Yes Biographical and Professional Materials
1980-2005
1 3
Phyllis Yes Professional Correspondence
1975-2005
1 4
Phyllis Yes Personal Correspondence
1975-2005
1 5
Phyllis Yes Academic Correspondence
1985-2005
1 6
Phyllis Yes Teaching Materials
1995-2005
1 7
Phyllis Yes Book Chapter
1990
1 8
Phyllis Yes Newspaper Clippings
1975-1980
1 9
Phyllis Yes Newspaper Clippings
1981-1990
1 10
Phyllis Yes Newspaper Clippings
1991-2002
1 11
Phyllis Yes Newspaper Clippings
1975-2002

Publications, 1975-2005Return to Top

Container(s) Description Dates
Box Folder
2 1
Phyllis Yes Visual Dialog Vol. 2, No. 3
1977
2 2
Phyllis Yes Allied Arts of Seattle
1977
2 3
Phyllis Yes CALY X Volume 3 Number 2
1978-10
2 4
Phyllis Yes ArtQuake Festival Guide
1981
2 5
Phyllis Yes Ornament Magazine
1987
2 6
Phyllis Yes Art & Antiques
1987-12
2 7
Phyllis Yes Northwest Originals - Oregon Women and Their Art
1989
2 8
Phyllis Yes New York Women's Foundation - Celebrating Women Commemorative Journal
1990
2 9
Phyllis Yes NW Gallery Art Magazine
1990-09-1990-10
2 10
Phyllis Yes Exhibition Volume 6 Number 3
1990
2 11
Phyllis Yes Celebrate Art
1991
2 12
Phyllis Yes New York Women's Foundation - Celebrating Women
1991
2 13
Phyllis Yes Styling Magazine No. 45
1991-07
2 14
Phyllis Yes The New York Women's Foundation - Celebrating Women
1992
2 15
Phyllis Yes University of Washington Medical Center - Perspectives
1993
2 16
Phyllis Yes Sea Hills Publications & Design
1995
2 17
Phyllis Yes College Art Association
1996-02
3 1
Phyllis Yes Gallery, Exhibit, and Event Brochures and Pamphlets
1981-2003
3 2
Phyllis Yes Event and Exhibition Invitations
1993-2003
3 3
Phyllis Yes Posters
1977-1997
3 4
Phyllis Yes Miscellaneous Artwork
1980-1990

Phyllis Yes Oversized and MediaReturn to Top

Container(s) Description Dates
Box Folder
4 1
Phyllis Yes VHS Tapes - Audio Tape
1991-1997
4 2
Phyllis Yes Photographs and Slides
1975-2005
4 3
Phyllis Yes Vintage Gloss Magazine
1992
4 4
Phyllis Yes ArtWeek Magazine Volume 33 Issue 1
2002
4 5
Phyllis Yes Visual Dialog Volume 3 Number 2
1977-1978

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Gender identity in art
  • Women

Corporate Names

  • Lewis & Clark College (Portland, Or.)

Geographical Names

  • Oregon
  • Portland (Or.)