A wooden stepladder summons you to an eight-foot-high wedge plastered with prints of flowers, a sunlit barn, and billowing clouds in Robert Rauschenberg’s Patrician Barnacle (Scale). The sculpture, created in 1981, partly from found objects, is the new centerpiece of the Portland Art Museum’s modern and contemporary art gallery. It joins 400 works by artists such as Monet, Cézanne, and Frank Stella. (503) 226-2811, www.portlandartmuseum.org.

Portland Art Museum