Francis Criss' "City Landscape," 1934
No single style encapsulates the 57 pieces of American Moderns, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s latest exhibition.
“It’s not a linear, chronological survey, but a nice sampling in a 50-year span,” said Alison Amick, curator of collections. “We have a number of different artists addressing ideas of what it means to be modern.”
Among the talents weighing in are Norman Rockwell, depicting his opinion of tattooists; Grandma Moses, with a postcard-perfect winter wonderland; N.C. Wyeth, whose Vision of New York looks positively Tolkien-esque; and Georgia O’Keeffe, represented with four stylistically different works.
Grouped into six thematic sections, from character-focused to Cubist experiments, the exhibition explores an evolving American identity through two World Wars and one Great Depression — a revolutionary time of change reflected in the paintings and sculptures that marks “a new approach to an old medium,” said Bryon Chambers, assistant curator of education.
