Opus #2

Eunice Jensen Parsons

Eunice Parsons began her pursuit of art as a teenager, when she enrolled in classes at the Chicago School of the Art Institute’s childrens’ art program in 1934. It was a 1950 solo trip to study Abstract Expressionism in New York and Washington D.C. -- taking a bus from her home in Portland, Oregon -- that truly set the course for her modern aesthetic.

In 1954’s “Opus #2,” the intersection of Parsons’ painterly tone and Cubist tension are found in her portrayal of orchestral musicians. It is also a clear precursor to her late-career preferred medium, collage, with its layered blocks of light and shadow, line and texture. Parsons, who was born in 1916, exhibited as recently as 2017 in her hometown of Portland.