OKLAHOMA CITY –Three new exhibitions opening in 2022 and 2023 join an already brimming schedule celebrating OKCMOA’s 20th anniversary year downtown. “Abbas Kiarostami: Beyond the Frame,” “Art and Activism at Tougaloo College” and “Edith Head: The Golden Age of Hollywood Costume Design” join previously announced 2022 exhibitions “The Perfect Shot: Walter Iooss Jr. and the Art of Sports Photography,” “Chihuly Then and Now: The Collection at Twenty” and “Highlights from the Rose Family Glass Collection.”
“Moving the Museum to Downtown OKC took great vision and leadership, and 20 years later, we are seeing the incredible results of that vision,” said OKCMOA President and CEO Michael Anderson, Ph.D. “In the next year, OKCMOA will organize and present four entirely new, landmark exhibitions curated from both our own collection and prestigious national and international collections; ‘Chihuly Then and Now,’ ‘Highlights from the Rose Family Glass Collection,’ ‘Abbas Kiarostami’ and ‘Edith Head.’ We are embracing our strengths as owners of one of the most comprehensive and impressive collections of studio glass in the region, stewards of the historic Centre Theater’s legacy and as a cultural beacon for Downtown OKC.”
Newly announced exhibitions include:
Oct. 15, 2022 to Jan. 15, 2023
Organized by OKCMOA in partnership with the Kiarostami Foundation, “Abbas Kiarostami: Beyond the Frame” is a multimedia, retrospective survey of artworks by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker, photographer and visual artist, Abbas Kiarostami. The first American museum survey since the artist’s death in 2016, “Beyond the Frame” reveals a singular artistic vision and a wide-ranging body of work nearly a half-century in the making, from his early children’s films and graphic design work to his immersive large-scale photographs and installations of his twenty-first century video art. This exhibition features the world premiere of the complete “Regardez-moi” portfolio, Kiarostami’s series of photographs depicting visitors to the Louvre and other museums. In conjunction with the exhibition, a comprehensive retrospective of his feature films will screen in the Noble Theater. Kiarostami’s films have won countless international prizes, including the Palme d’Or, and frequently appear in surveys of the greatest films of all time.
Spring 2023
This exhibition features works of art from the collection of Tougaloo College, a historically Black college in Mississippi. Founded in 1869, Tougaloo College played a central role in the Civil Rights Movement and the fight for racial equality. In 1963, the college gained national attention when students and professors staged a sit-in at Woolworth’s in Jackson. That same year, the college’s art collection was formed, making it the first modern art collection in the state of Mississippi. This exhibition features a number of works of art by major European artists of the 20th century, alongside significant American artists, including many important Black artists. The European works include lithographs by Pablo Picasso, George Grosz and Henri Matisse. A strength of the collection is the great variety of artworks made by American artists, ranging from serene landscapes by Robert Duncanson and Richard Mayhew, to figural works by Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, and abstract paintings and sculpture by Alma Thomas and Richard Hunt. This exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts.
Summer 2023
Organized by OKCMOA, this exciting retrospective of award-winning costume designer Edith Head will feature over 70 costumes that span the six decades of Head’s career and were worn by stars such as Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Shirley MacLaine, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Kim Novak. With over 400 films to her credit, Head ruled the costume design departments at Paramount and Universal Studios from the early 1920s to the early 1980s. Head helped define the style of classic Hollywood with her striking work, which garnered her 35 Oscar nominations and eight Oscar wins — more than any other woman to date. To complement the exhibition, a related film series will be organized for the Museum’s Noble Theater highlighting Head’s work on the screen.
Find the Museum’s full schedule at www.okcmoa.com/current-exhibitions
