Expose Yourself to Art
Poster of a man flashing a sculpture
"Expose Yourself to Art" was the name of a poster which featured Bud Clark, future mayor of Portland, Oregon, seen flashing a bronze nude sculpture. The poster, and Clark himself—at the time a bar owner in Goose Hollow—became widely known.
Poster
The "Expose Yourself to Art" poster showed Bud Clark apparently flashing an artwork, titled Kvinneakt, Norman J. Taylor's bronze sculpture of a nude woman. Clark appeared to be wearing only a raincoat, but it was later revealed that he was wearing shorts and a T-shirt under his raincoat.
The photo was taken by Mike Ryerson in 1978, then a staff member of The Northwest Neighbor. Ryerson and Clark originally intended to create a poster for the Venereal Disease Action Council until a reader submitted the caption "expose yourself to art". With $500 (equivalent to $2,500 in 2025), Ryerson printed 800 posters, which he sold for one dollar each (equivalent to $4.94 in 2025) from a booth at Waterfront Park. By 1984, the year Clark was elected mayor, Ryerson had sold more than 250,000 posters, with profits supporting The Northwest Neighbor.
Ryerson later sold rights to the poster to Mike Beard, owner of Errol Graphics. In 2010, Clark sold the coat he wore in the poster, among other household items, by secret bid.
The public source identifies “Expose Yourself to Art” as poster of a man flashing a sculpture. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Expose, Yourself and Poster.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Expose Yourself to Art”, the useful work is to connect “poster of a man flashing a sculpture” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5421576. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1978, 2025, 1984 and 2010.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Expose Yourself to Art”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Expose Yourself to Art primary sources, Expose Yourself to Art archive and Expose research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Expose Yourself to Art”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Expose Yourself to Art” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.