"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.
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. [1] [2]
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". [3] With $500 (equivalent to $2,300 in 2023), Ryerson printed 800 posters, which he sold for one dollar each (equivalent to $4.67 in 2023) from a booth at Waterfront Park. By 1984, the year Clark was elected mayor, Ryerson had sold more than 250,000 posters, [2] with profits supporting The Northwest Neighbor. [3]
Ryerson later sold rights to the poster to Mike Beard, owner of Errol Graphics. [3] In 2010, Clark sold the coat he wore in the poster, among other household items, by secret bid. [4] It was announced at Clark's memorial service on May 15, 2022 that Thomas Lauderdale, of Pink Martini, was the owner of the coat and that he was donating it to a new permanent exhibit of Portland History at the Oregon Historical Society museum. Lauderdale displayed the coat ceremoniously on stage.[ citation needed]
Prior to Clark's later bid for the office of mayor, he was chiefly known outside of his neighborhood of Goose Hollow for his appearance on the controversial poster. [5] In 1984, six years after the poster's publication, Clark, running as a political outsider, began a long-shot campaign for Portland mayor against incumbent Frank Ivancie. Ivancie cited Clark's appearance on the poster as proof that he was not a serious candidate, and that his only claim to fame was "exposing himself to a downtown statue." [5] [6] Clark handily defeated Ivancie and served two terms as mayor. [5] [6] Following the election, Clark sold autographed copies of the poster to eliminate his campaign debt. [7]
The poster has been referred to historically as being part of an arts advocacy campaign. [8] As of 2013, the image's photographer, Mike Ryerson, had retired from the Northwest Examiner (successor paper to The Northwest Neighbor), [9] and became noted as an oral historian who led walking tours of Northwest Portland in the neighborhoods where he and Clark documented, lived, and worked for most of their lives. [10] Ryerson died on January 6, 2015. [11]
The slogan and poster have been parodied on several occasions. In 2011, Willamette Week published the article "Expose Yourself to Bikes", which included a cover image of a woman wearing an orange coat "flashing" a bike. [3] Clark owned a sweatshirt that read "Expose yourself to retirement". [4]