April 5th - Oklahoma City Art Museum Photos

Entrance to the Museum of Art. We arrived early and had to stand outside waiting for the Museum to open. It gave us an opportunity to study the building, and to see the full length of the 55 foot high Dale Chihuly Glass Tower from the outside. It was windy and cold, but the sky was clear and we were sure we were going to have a beautiful day for our tour of the downtown.

Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower

The Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower is the signature sculpture of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center. Created by glass artist Dale Chihuly, The Tower stands as a memorial to the late Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick, a Museum founder. Occupying the three-story atrium in the Museum’s main lobby, the 55 foot high tower emerges from a black granite reflecting pool. It is comprised of 2,100 individually blown glass parts and held together by a seven piece steel armature, or spine, with 2,100 individual forks. Illuminated 24 hours a day, The Tower rises as a beacon for Museum visitors. It is one of the many tower-type sculptures Chihuly has made since 1996, of which no two are alike.

A year or so ago, Clive and I watched a TV show about this artist who was traveling to several different cities in the world and visiting with glass blowers in each local to teach them his methods, and to make some special art projects with blown glass. It was really interesting to watch, and the glass art he created was incredible. We didn't know who the artist was, or that he was so famous. Then Joyce told us about seeing the Dale Chihuly exhibit in Kalamazoo, and we STILL didn't twig to the connection. Duh!? Then, when we saw the ad for the exhibit in the OKC Museum of Art, the coin finally hit the slot! Not only is this beautiful art, but it makes fantastic photos too!!! Please take the time to enlarge the photos, because you really can't appreciate it in the thumbnails.

Base of the Tower
Close up detail of the tower
Top of the Tower

I took many many photos of the tower, from different angles, trying to get the whole 55 foot height into one photo, but I just couldn't do it! Don't you just LOVE the colors!?!?!?

Autumn Gold Persian Wall

When you get into the exhibit, you are just blown away by all the beautiful colors! I was preparing to take flash photos, but was lucky enough to have a guard come buy just as I was setting up. I asked him if it was ok to use the flash and he replied, "Sure, go ahead, but you will be much happier with it if you don't." Great advice!! The illumination of the glass pieces is so fantastic, that it makes them show up so well in the darkened settings.

Persian Seaform Ceiling

As you pass from one side of the exhibit to the other, you walk through a hallway with a ceiling of clear glass. On top of the clear glass are dozens and dozens of pieces of the blown glass art, piled on top of each other. The resulting display is spectacular. We were taking picture after picture, trying for different angles. Harold was talking to the guard, who told him that most people who came through the hallway reacted much the same, but the children would lay down on the floor and look up at the ceiling and just marvel at it. Both Harold and I figured that if kids could do it, so could we!!! So we laid down and started taking pictures!!!! It changed the perspective completely and made for incredible photos. This series' title hints at associations with ancient glass styles and reflects the fusion of East and West. Historically, Venice showed an assimilation of Persian, Byzantine, and eastern ideas. When Chihuly worked at the Venini factory in Venice, his awareness of these historical ties and stylistic influences in Venetian art grew. Persians, with their gently fluted edges, are delicate yet powerful, and their jewel-like colors and sensuous curving forms make them some of Chihuly's most glorious work.
Ikebana/Rowboat with Floats
Chihuly first filled boats with glass in Nuutajärvi, Finland, during the "Chihuly Over Venice" project in 1995. After several days of glassblowing, Chihuly and his team made temporary installations along the Nuutajoki, a river nearby. When the team found a partially submerged wooden rowboat, Chihuly filled it so that it was overflowing with glass.

Some of the displays were hard to catch on film. If you used the flash, it drowned them out, and if you didn't, you couldn't capture the scene. There were many more displays than what I have shown here. The museum is the permanent home of the most comprehensive collection of Chihuly glass in the world. It was purchased for 3.2 million dollars!!
Ancestor White Seaforms

The Seaforms series seemed to come about by accident, as much of Chihuly's work does, while experimenting with some ribbed molds when he was working on the Basket series. When the ribbed "baskets" began to look more like sea forms, Chihuly changed the name of the series to Seaforms.

Putti with Birds

"Putti" is the Italian word for cherub and a specialty of Italian glass artisan Pino Signoretto. In bringing two renowned glass artisans, Pino Signoretto and Lino Tagliapietra, to Pilchuck to work together, Chihuly created a design that Lino would blow and Pino would affix to the glass. They put them together in installations such as the Museum's "Putti with Birds" to show all the different ways that the putti could look, sit, and play.

Macchia Forest
Chihuly's Macchia (pronounced mock' kia) are speckled with colors. Chihuly couldn't think of what to call this series of works when he began it in 1981, so he called an artist friend, Italo Scanga, and asked what the Italian word for "spotted" would be. Spotted in Italian is "macchia." When you look at the Macchia, notice that the interiors and exteriors of the vessels are different colors. Each side is distinct because a layer of white opaque glass separates them.
Close up of some of the vessels. Fabulous colors!!
Confetti Anemone Wall

Anemones are wall-mounted, tentacle-like clusters that cling to the wall, appearing to be animated as if caught in the motion of waves. Chihuly often groups these sculptures in response to a specific environment.Close-up of Confetti Anemones.

Frank Stella
Frank Stella (American, b. 1936)The Spirit-Spout, 1988Oil and enamel on aluminum, fiberglass, corrugated aluminum, wood, and metal fixtures, 125 x 110 x 43 in. (317.5 x 279.4 x 109.22 cm)Purchase with funds from the Museum Acquisition Trust and the Jerry Westheimer Family, 2001.017© 2006 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Man with Child. Donated by the artist due to it's similiarity to the fireman rescuing the child from the Oklahoma City bombing. The work was completed prior to the bombing and apparently he felt it was more appropriate to be on display as a tribute to the courage of the rescue workers.

One of the beautiful paintings in the museum.
Closeups of the faces

Sir William Beechey
Sir William Beechey (British, 1753-1839)Portrait of Kitty Packe (née Hart), ca. 1818-1821Oil on canvas, 55 x 42 in. (139.7 x 106.68 cm)Purchased with funds provided by Angie Hester, 2001.007

Another painting I thought was fantastic

Closeup of her face.