In the spring of 2019, we reopened our second-floor galleries with an exciting new presentation of our permanent collection. Headlining this reinstallation is the Museum’s latest acquisition, Kehinde Wiley’s monumental new portrait Jacob de Graeff (2018) from the artist’s Kehinde Wiley: Saint Louis exhibition. Wiley’s extraordinary painting anchors a new portrait gallery that also features works by Anthony van Dyck, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and George Bellows. A second section of portraits explores the genre during America’s Colonial period with the Museum’s extraordinary George Washington painting and its rarely seen John Singleton Copleys all on view. Other galleries focus on a variety of topics such as the still life, scenes of urban life, animal paintings, landscapes, seascapes, and the body and the nude. Featured artists include Georgia O’Keeffe, Stuart Davis, William Merritt Chase, George Inness, Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Thomas Moran, Karen LaMonte, Alice Neel and Andy Goldsworthy.
In 2019, OKCMOA also acquired “An Italian Autumn” by renowned American artist Thomas Cole. This major work by an American master adds to the Museum’s strong collection of American art prior to 1945. Cole’s painting headlines our landscape and animal painting gallery that also features works by George Inness, Gustave Courbet, Thomas Moran, Jasper Cropsey, Hans Hofmann, John Sloan, Oscar Brousse Jacobson, Doel Reed and Alexandre Hogue, among others.
Recent Press Coverage of this exciting new exhibition:
- Oklahoma City Museum of Art acquires Kehinde Wiley portrait, Golden Age still life from the Oklahoman
- Face value: Oklahoma City Museum of Art puts Kehinde Wiley at the center of its permanent collection from the Oklahoma Gazette
- Oklahoma City Museum of Art Acquires “An Italian Autumn” by Thomas Cole from Art Daily
Credits: Kehinde Wiley (American, b. 1977). Jacob de Graeff, 2018. Oil on canvas. Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Museum purchase with funds from the Carolyn A. Hill Collections Endowment and the Pauline Morrison Ledbetter Collections Endowment, 2018.103. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles California. Photo: Jean-Paul Torno, courtesy of Saint Louis Art Museum © Kehinde Wiley. | Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848). An Italian Autumn, ca. 1847. Oil on canvas. Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Museum purchase with funds from the James C. and Virginia W. Meade Collections Endowment, the Meade Acquisition Fund, and the Beaux Arts Society Fund for Acquisitions, 2019.001