Galleries featuring O’Keeffe, Ruscha and several other artists to open this winter and spring
OKLAHOMA CITY (November 21, 2023) – The Oklahoma City Museum of Art (OKCMOA) today announced the opening of Magnificent Beauty: Georgia O’Keeffe and the Art of the Flower, a can’t-miss exhibition, on March 9, 2024. This original exhibition organized by OKCMOA puts one of the artist’s most iconic subjects, the flower, in a new context.
“Magnificent Beauty: Georgia O’Keeffe and the Art of the Flower explores how artists, including one of America’s most beloved painters, O’Keeffe, have depicted the flower, and particularly the lily, in striking and thought-provoking ways,” said President and CEO Michael Anderson, PhD. Five works by O’Keeffe, including the Museum’s own Calla Lily (Lily – Yellow No. 2), will be featured in this exhibition.
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) is perhaps best known for her depictions of flowers, a subject she began exploring in New York in the 1920s. Magnificent Beauty will also showcase works from West Coast photographer Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) and more. Magnificent Beauty will be on view through July 7, 2024, on the Museum’s second floor.
Before the O’Keeffe exhibition opens, visitors will have the opportunity to view a number of the Museum’s latest acquisitions in First Look: New to the Museum. The installation, which opens to the public December 16, 2023, will showcase a wide variety of mediums, styles, and genres, from traditional examples of landscapes, still lifes, and portraiture to more abstract paintings and sculptures and Conceptual artworks. One artist who will be featured prominently is former Oklahoma City resident Ed Ruscha (b. 1937), whose work LAND USE is a prime example of the artist’s signature playful style featuring commonplace or slang words.
“Ruscha’s distinctive work is sure to be a draw for visitors,” said Anderson, PhD. “We’re proud to have this Oklahoma connection represented in First Look, as well as works by former OKC residents Nan Sheets and Alexandra Alaupovic.”
“Ed Ruscha is an international icon and he is from Oklahoma City. I commend OKCMOA for continuing to expand their acquisition of his work, and I am very excited about these new pieces joining their permanent collection,” said Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt. “Ed is currently the subject of a blockbuster retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and it is essential that members of our OKC community also have the opportunity to experience his work in his hometown museum. I encourage everyone to stop by to see his amazing paintings and prints right here in downtown OKC.”
First Look: New to the Museum will feature more than 40 works that seamlessly weave a story of how we conceptualize the space around us. Paintings, prints, photography, and more help drive the narrative forward as visitors view—and consider—spaces that are real and imagined, familiar and unknown.
A Sustainers’ Behind-the-Scenes event on December 13 will feature a preview of the new acquisitions by Ruscha, Alen MacWeeney, Donna Ferrato, Joel Meyerowitz, Ethel Fisher, and more. This is an exclusive event for OKCMOA Sustainer members. Visit okcmoa.com/membership or call 405.278.8207 to join or upgrade your current membership.
For a full museum experience, visitors are encouraged to make First Look and OKCMOA’s other permanent collection galleries part of their visit to Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight, the current traveling exhibition organized by Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington and Preston Singletary and presented by the Chickasaw Nation.
First Look: New to the Museum will be on view on the third floor through March 17, 2024.
Image Credit: Georgia O’Keeffe, Calla Lily (Lily – Yellow No. 2) (detail), 1927, oil on canvas, 20 x 9 in., Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Westheimer Family Collection, 2005.056, © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Oklahoma City Museum of Art
