Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

Located on the august campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, the JSMA featured a truly gorgeous exhibition of Hung Liu’s mixed media art. Hung Liu was an artist creating propaganda under Chairman Mao before escaping to UC San Diego in 1984. Then she taught at Mills College and continued to paint and draw her own vision. She died of pancreatic cancer last year, leaving a legacy of social realism paintings made from old photos, drawn with a fiercely humanist, anti-injustice slant.  I had come to the JSMA to see the exhibit on Russian Christian icons but it was the works of Hung Liu that transfixed me. http://www.hungliu.com/

There is an interesting story about real estate developer, gazillionaire, art collector, museum’s founder and dad, Jordan Schnitzer. In 2015 he and his then-girlfriend Corey Sause conceived a child through assisted reproductive technology: his sperm, her egg, and a surrogate mother.  Corey and the pregnant lady surrendered all their rights to the child contractually. A few years later, Jordan and Corey broke up and she sued him for joint custody of the child, arguing that the right of motherhood could not be signed away. A judge in Multnomah County, Portland, agreed. Then Jordan appealed. The Appellate Court reversed the lower Court’s decision and found for the Defendant, upholding the written contracts Corey had signed. Corey has vowed to appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court.  I’m interested in this case. It has overtones of Medea, a bitter ex using the son as a pawn to hurt the lover who spurned her. And it portrays a modern view of motherhood, the Mama Bear willing to fight to defend her young. And it also tests the limits of contractual agreements.  If Corey prevailed, surrogacy and assisted reproductive techniques would be dead in the water because the underlying contracts would be invalid.