Oklahoma State Art Collection
Oklahoma State Capitol, 1st Floor, West Wing
Open every day of the week
8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Admission is free and open to the public
The Betty Price Gallery, located on the 1st floor of the Oklahoma State Capitol, houses the Oklahoma State Art Collection. The Collection is a visual anthology of the history of artistic expression in Oklahoma. Curated by the Oklahoma Arts Council, the current exhibition features more than 100 works of art by artists who were born in, trained in or have produced a significant portion of their work in the state.
The works of art within this significant collection celebrate creativity across Oklahoma and give voice to the cultural diversity that make up our state. By offering works of art that reflect our state’s history and culture, we learn and recognize the various and diverse cultures and voices as threads that comprise the fabric of Oklahoma.
This museum quality gallery features rotating exhibitions of works from the Collection. The Council manages and cultivates the Collection by continuing to acquire donated works. The Gallery is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
The Oklahoma State Art Collection was established in January 1971 to collect and preserve the work of Oklahoma artists. Under the leadership of Jerome M. Westheimer, Sr., and the founding State Art Collection Committee members, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded a grant to the Oklahoma Arts Council to purchase works for the Collection.
The Collection’s primary purpose was to serve as an educational resource. For the first ten years, the Collection was available to communities throughout the state as a touring exhibition of the Mid-America Arts Alliance. In 1976, selected works from the Collection were chosen as part of a special Bicentennial exhibition at the Kennedy Center in conjunction with Oklahoma Day in Washington, D.C., providing world visitors a glimpse of Oklahoma talent.
The current exhibition of the Oklahoma State Art Collection is organized into five sections: Highlights of the Collection, Recent Acquisitions, Works on Paper, Modern and Contemporary Art and Sculpture.
The Highlights of the Collection section features more than 20 masterworks by artists including Ed Ruscha, Alexandra Alaupovic, Oscar Jacobson, Doel Reed and Nan Sheets. Capturing a full range of expression, the works consist of a vast array of media including basketry, sculpture, metal relief, painting, printmaking, ceramics and mixed media. As initiators, these artists embraced innovation and progressive expression, and ushered new challenges and directions for Oklahoma artists. Their legacy is alive within the art schools they established and can be experienced in the works of those they inspire.
The Recent Acquisitions section includes works by Oklahoma artists who have established national and international reputations and whose works have recently been added to the Collection. The selected works reveal the various artistic styles and media employed by Oklahoma artists from Mitsuno Reedy’s traditional pastel portrait Brenda (Woman with a Turban) to Benjamin Harjo, Jr.’s colorful acrylic painting Conversation Between Friends. The examples in this section illustrate both the technical mastery of printmaker Woody Crumbo and woodturning artist Nathan Hart’s renewed interest in a traditional art medium represented in a contemporary fashion. In addition, this section includes examples of painting, fiber art and collage by award-winning artists Elizabeth Hahn, Sue Moss Sullivan and Michi Susan.
The Works on Paper section explores the etching process by featuring the artistic career of Maurice R. Bebb (1891-1986). The selected works on display represent a portfolio of 165 black-and-white and color etchings spanning the artist’s prolific career, from the early 1940s to the late 1970s. His subjects, ranging from American flora and fauna to European landscapes and seascapes, reveal his passion for nature, precision for detail and mastery of the etching process.
The Modern and Contemporary section integrates selected paintings, ceramics, sculptures and mixed media works. This broad selection displays significant examples of the major art movements and directions that influenced Oklahoma artists over the last century. Created from the early 1900s to the present, these works make it possible to trace the transition from the end of the Modern art era to the emergence of new artistic developments in Contemporary art in Oklahoma.
Not surprisingly, in conjunction with the Collection’s establishment in 1971, the Collection is notably strong in Contemporary art of the 1960s and 1970s. Significant postwar developments include Abstract Expressionism, Geometric Abstraction and Post-Painterly Abstraction by noted artists Paul England, Bob Barker and Leon Polk Smith.
The Sculpture section features works in media ranging from classical bronze to contemporary metals. These works explore the power of sculpture to depict familiar forms as well as their effect on the space around them. Ranging from Western works to the abstract, the sculptures in this section exhibit styles from traditional sculpture to moderncontemporary interpretations.
As the direction of many contemporary sculptors continues to change in technique and theme, sculptors incorporate new media and common objects in their works. In M.R. Smith’s The Ford Mask, the artist utilizes an ordinary object, the frame of a Ford Ranger truck, to construct an African- American inspired mask. In addition, contemporary sculptors are expanding their repertoire to include functionality into their works as seen in Kelly Gale Amen’s 1898 Weatherford, Oklahoma bronze bench.