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Intriguing Life of 'Artist and Legend' Joseph Knowles Revealed at Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum (aka Ilwaco Heritage Museum) This Summer |
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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carol Zahorsky OR Una Boyle ILWACO, Wash. – June 27, 2007 – The life and works of a man made legendary for inciting a return to nature movement by walking naked into the woods of Maine in 1913 will be showcased at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum (aka Ilwaco Heritage Museum) this summer. The special exhibit – “Joe Knowles: Artist and Legend” – will make public the museum’s extensive collection of the works and archival material, as well as on-loan items, for the late Seaview resident, nationally recognized artist and noted author of Alone in the Wilderness. The exhibit will run through September 30, 2007. The extensively annotated retrospective illustrates the multi-faceted life of Knowles, who was also an avid self-promoter. Over 230 collected items range from simple sketches on envelopes to large oil paintings that at one time hung in Ilwaco’s cinema. Photographs of Knowles include those of him entering and leaving the Maine woods, on tour on the vaudeville circuit sharing his back to nature adventure, and in Hollywood when he appeared in B movies as a Western star, among others. A wide selection of his paintings, copper plates of his etchings, sketches of the Venetian murals he created for the Liberty Theater in Astoria, cover illustrations for outdoor magazines, and commercial art he created while in Boston are also on display. Celebrated Maine wilderness adventurer, Joseph Edward Knowles resided on the Long Beach Peninsula from 1917 until his death in 1942 at age 73. He and his wife, Marion Humphrey (also an artist), lived and operated an art studio in a three-room cottage built of salvaged materials found on the beach in Seaview. In 1925, Knowles was commissioned by R.A. Long (founder of Longview, Washington) to create 46 paintings for the sum of $10,000, to be displayed in Longview’s Monticello Hotel. Of them, 22 murals are still intact and have recently been restored. Knowles was more popularly known for etchings he sold to those vacationing at the beach, during the tourism boom of the 1920s. Knowles captured place and time with such subjects as ships, fishing boats, landscapes, seascapes, wildlife, American Indians, trappers, hunters, cowboys, and local architecture. The Knowles exhibit tells just one of the intriguing stories of the southwestern most point of Washington State, told at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum (aka Ilwaco Heritage Museum). The museum is located at 115 SE Lake Street, Ilwaco. Summer hours are Monday through Saturday from 10AM to 4PM, and Sunday from noon until 4PM. A modest admission is charged. The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum (aka Ilwaco Heritage Museum) is one of a handful of unique museums open to visitors to the Long Beach Peninsula. With its mix of sensational restaurants, comfortable lodging, attractions, lighthouses, galleries, and a long, windswept beach, the Long Beach Peninsula remains one of the Northwest’s most enjoyable, refreshing and scenic getaway destinations. For visitor information, please call the Long Beach Peninsula Visitors Bureau toll-free at 1-800-451-2542 or access www.funbeach.com.
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