A new exhibition, “The Art of Oklahoma,” opens at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art on Nov. 16, the 110th anniversary of Oklahoma statehood. The installation features a selection of paintings, prints and photographs spanning 100 years and ranging in style from Impressionism and documentary photography to geometric abstraction and hyperrealism. Curated from the Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition includes works by Oscar Brousse Jacobson, Nellie Shepherd, David Fitzgerald and Woody Big Bow, among others.
“The Museum has an outstanding collection of art created by or about Oklahomans, and we are excited to showcase these works together,” said Dr. Michael J. Anderson, director of curatorial affairs. “While no exhibition about the art of the state can present every option open to Oklahoma artists, we do believe this showcase represents a diversity of artistic voices, subjects, mediums and stylistic strategies. Ultimately it is our belief that there is no single art of Oklahoma. Rather, there is a great variety that models itself on the multi-faceted identity of Oklahoma as a whole.”
Featured are artists including Nan Sheets, David Fitzgerald, Otto Duecker, Oscar Brousse Jacobsen and Doel Reed, all of whom helped shape the direction of art in Oklahoma. “Opening on the 110th anniversary of statehood,” Anderson added, “is a wonderful way to honor their legacy, and those of the generations that followed them.”
“The Art of Oklahoma” also will feature “The Oklahoma Land Rush” by John Steuart Curry, one of the premier American regionalist painters of the last century. This large oil sketch, created in preparation for a larger New Deal mural, is on loan from the General Services Administration in Washington, D.C.
The exhibition, opening on the Museum’s second floor, will include 23 works by 19 artists. Many of the artists featured were either born in or studied in Oklahoma. The remaining works feature Oklahoma subjects such as “Soil and Subsoil” by Alexandre Hogue and “Santa Fe Railroad Station as Seen from the Tracks, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma” by Mark Klett.
Guests can view the exhibition beginning at 10 a.m. on Nov. 16 with regular Museum admission and after 5 p.m. for only $5 as part of the Museum’s Art After 5 program. The exhibition will be on view through Sept. 2, 2018.
