Visitors will see works from Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte de Ponce and the Chrysler Museum of Art
OKLAHOMA CITY (January 6, 2026) — The Oklahoma City Museum of Art (OKCMOA) announced today its summer and fall 2026 special exhibitions. The Sense of Beauty: Six Centuries of Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce will open on June 20, 2026. It will be followed by The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art, opening October 31.
The Sense of Beauty has been organized by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in collaboration with the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. The exhibition will span a period from the 1500s through the 21st century and feature 60 paintings by European, Puerto Rican, and North American artists, including El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Francisco de Goya, Frederic Church, John Singer Sargent, and contemporary Puerto Rican artists Miguel Trelles and María de Mater O’Neill.
“Many of these paintings have not been on view outside of Puerto Rico since they were acquired,” said OKCMOA President and CEO Michael Anderson, PhD. “A major highlight of this traveling exhibition, while the Museo de Arte de Ponce undergoes renovations after 2020’s earthquakes, will be Frederic Leighton’s iconic 1895 painting Flaming June, one of the most vivid canvases of the nineteenth century.”
Opening to the public on Halloween 2026, approximately six weeks after The Sense of Beauty’s September 20 closing, is OKCMOA’s latest decorative and fine arts exhibition.
The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art is organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC. The exhibition will feature 127 works of art from the Art Nouveau movement including paintings, prints, jewelry, and furniture.
“The Triumph of Nature will be a very transportive exhibition, one that prompts visitors to imagine themselves in a different time and amongst the objects in their original spaces,” said Anderson. “Many visitors will recognize not only the motifs of the Art Nouveau movement, but the artists best associated with, with works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, and Aubrey Beardsley, all appearing in this exhibition.”
Ticket sales and accompanying programming for The Sense of Beauty and The Triumph of Nature will be announced in the coming months. Museum members receive free entry to all exhibitions, invitations to exhibition previews, and discounts on programming. For more information, please visit okcmoa.com/membership.
Currently on view at OKCMOA is the exhibition Paul Reed: A Retrospective, which chronicles the career of the Washington Color School artist in the first major retrospective dedicated to him. A complete list of galleries and exhibitions on view, including Dale Chihuly: The Oklahoma Collection, as well as events and programs, can be found at okcmoa.com.
Sponsorship opportunities are currently available for both 2026 exhibitions. For more information, please contact Development Officer CC Phenix at 405.278.8242.
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Image Credit:
Frederic, Lord Leighton (England, 1830-1896), Flaming June, 1895, oil on canvas, 46 7/8 x 46 7/8 in. (119.1 x 119.1 cm), Museo de Arte de Ponce. The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
The Sense of Beauty has been organized by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in collaboration with the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
This project was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art is organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.
