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University of Oklahoma 555 Elm Avenue, Norman, Oklahoma 73019
OIL WOOD : OKLAHOMA MODERNS GEORGE BOGART AND JAMES HENKLE
FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART
OIL&WOOD
Susan Havens Caldwell FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
OKLAHOMA MODERNS
GEORGE BOGART AND JAMES HENKLE
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art University of Oklahoma
George Bogart, 1992
Jim Henkle, c. 1968
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OIL WOOD
OKLAHOMA MODERNS GEORGE BOGART AND JAMES HENKLE
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OIL WOOD OKLAHOMA MODERNS GEORGE BOGART AND JAMES HENKLE
SUSAN HAVENS CALDWELL
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art University of Oklahoma
George A. Bogart Pollination, 2005 Oil, oilstick, and charcoal on paper 22 x 30 in.
CONTENTS
8
Preface
Emily Ballew Neff
10
Introduction
Mark Andrew White
12
Oil and Wood: Oklahoma Moderns George Bogart and James Henkle
Susan Havens Caldwell
14
George A. Bogart
56
James L. Henkle
70
Checklist of the Exhibition: George A. Bogart
75
Checklist of the Exhibition: James L. Henkle
76
About the Author
78
Publication Notes
79
About the Venue
Measurements for all two-dimensional works are in inches, length x width Measurements for all three-dimensional items are in inches, length x width x depth
PREFACE EMILY BALLEW NEFF Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director and Chief Curator
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the School of Art and Art History at the University of Oklahoma share a rich history and form an important partnership. Therefore, it is with great pride that the museum presents Oil and Wood: Oklahoma Moderns George Bogart and James Henkle. Bogart and Henkle left lasting influences at OU, and this exhibition serves as a fitting tribute to two of its distinguished faculty. This exhibition would not have been possible without the help of key individuals who contributed valuable time, effort, and resources. Our special thanks go to Elyse Bogart, whose commitment and devotion to her husband’s legacy provided not only the impetus for the project, but also much of the intellectual and material support. Jim Henkle also deserves our thanks for the artworks on loan, and the knowledge and insights he provided to the exhibition. Dr. Susan Caldwell, Professor Emeritus and David Ross Boyd Professor, kindly served as guest curator of the exhibition, and her catalogue essays offer an invaluable scholarly perspective on the careers of Bogart and Henkle. Finally, we would like to thank Karyn Gilman for the catalogue’s handsome design. A testament to both the tireless efforts of Elyse and the important roles that Bogart and Henkle played in Oklahoma’s cultural history, the overwhelming support we have received for this project only reaffirms our commitment to showcasing OU’s own. We would also like to thank a number of individuals and organizations for their assistance with Oil and Wood: Oklahoma Moderns George Bogart and James Henkle. Our deep appreciation is extended to the Fred Jones
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Jr. Museum of Art Museum Association and a long list of others who backed this important exhibition and publication: Carol Beesley, Elyse Bogart, Michael S. and Kimberly Bogart and children, Richard J. Bogart, Steve and Pam Bradford, Barbara E. Chapman and John Cogswell, John Chatmas and Karen Albrecht, C.B. Elder, Sue Elkins, CPA, Roger and Joanna Empie, Eugene and Sherry Enrico, Carolyn Farris, Bill and Kathy Finn, Gustav W. Friedrich, Norman and Helen Gee, Scott and Leslie (Bogart) Henderson, Penny Hopkins, Greg and Julie Kunesh, Allen and Emi Landgren, David and Lynne Levy, Steven and Nina Livesey, Donald and Maryanne Maletz, Marial L. Martyn, Donna Matles (Donna Designs), Sunni Mercer (Mercer Associates, Inc.), Shawn and Robin Meyers, Ralph and Joyce Miller, Karen R. Mobley, Wayne and Anne Morgan, Suzanne O’Bryan, Edgar Allen O’Rear, John and Linda Reese, Terry Ripley, Melinda Robinson, Roger Shimomura, David and Dolores Simpson, Susan Sitzes, Martha Skeeters and J.R. Cruz, Katie Barwick-Snell and Daniel C. Snell, Alyson Stanfield, Art Biz Coach, James and Lynda Stephenson, Patricia Tillman, Luella G. Vaccaro and the Estate of Nick D. Vaccaro, Larry Walker, Doug and JoAnna Wall, Charles and Lyntha Wesner, George and Lisa Wilson, James and Nancy Yoch, and an anonymous donor. Finally, we would like to thank President David L Boren and First Lady Molly Shi Boren, our museum patrons, and the university community for their ongoing support of our exhibitions and programs. With your help, we will continue to fulfill our mission to collect, preserve, protect, and interpret the finest examples of human creativity for our visitors and audiences among the University of Oklahoma family, the state of Oklahoma, and beyond.
James L. Henkle Circular, 1971 Painted steel 36 x 36 x 36 in. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman Museum purchase, 1972 Photo: Susan Havens Caldwell
INTRODUCTION MARK ANDREW WHITE Eugene B. Adkins Senior Curator and Curator of Collections
The art history of Oklahoma is still in its infancy and scholarly treatment of the state’s artists is a rarity. Oil and Wood: Oklahoma Moderns George Bogart and James Henkle rectifies this inattention, at least with respect to two of the more important artists working in the latter half of the twentieth century. As colleagues at the University of Oklahoma School of Art, Bogart and Henkle championed modernist ideals in painting and design, respectively. This exhibition pairs the paintings of George Bogart and the furniture of Jim Henkle, offering a sampling of their careers, yet it also provides a glimpse, albeit fragmentary, of the cultural climate at OU during the mid-twentieth century. Oil and Wood reveals that modernist ideas had real currency at OU and the work included in this exhibition demonstrates that artists in Norman, Oklahoma, kept pace with developments outside the state. George Bogart, who joined the OU art faculty in 1970, experimented restlessly with paint, and this exhibition offers a retrospective survey of his career from his years at the University of Texas at Austin in the mid-1960s to his final works in the early 2000s. Like many of his contemporaries, Bogart found it difficult to escape the lure of Abstract Expressionism, and he produced gestural abstractions with cryptic ideograms in the 1960s, only to abandon action painting for large stained canvases and masses of poured acrylic paint. In the 1980s, he turned to representation, filling his canvases with studio props and the mundane objects of everyday existence, but with a continuing penchant for expressive gesture. His final paintings come full circle, as he returned to some of the ambiguous forms that had appeared in his early work. The furniture designs of James Henkle offer a sculptural counterpoint to Bogart’s paintings. Henkle began his career in design in Chicago and arrived at OU in 1951. Although he worked in a variety of media over the course of his career, he excelled in the artful design of modernist furniture. Henkle took obvious delight in the colors and grains of various woods, and he worked with local stock, such as oak and walnut, as well as more exotic varieties, including African padauk. Henkle’s approach to form is equally striking, and each of his pieces, whether a chair or desk, demonstrates a skillfully crafted architecture of geometric shapes and sinuous lines, suggestive of the furniture designs of George Nelson and Charles Eames. George Bogart and Jim Henkle both delighted in experimentation with materials, and this exhibition, Oil and Wood, emphasizes the profound joy each artist found in his chosen media.
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OIL&WOOD
OKLAHOMA MODERNS GEORGE BOGART AND JAMES HENKLE SUSAN HAVENS CALDWELL
The title of this exhibition, Oil and Wood, emphasizes medium because George Bogart’s paintings and James Henkle’s furniture designs awaken in us a feeling for materials used richly, lovingly. It is not that Bogart painted in oils exclusively; he sometimes painted in acrylics and drew, using various mediums, but he always returned to his preferred medium, oil, whose luminosity attracted him. Likewise, while Henkle constructed metal sculptures and
george a . BOGART 1933–2005
product designs in various materials, his most beloved materials were the various woods that he fashioned into functional sculptures of great elegance. Surely one of the most significant aspects of the visual arts, as opposed to, say, philosophy or literature, is that in art ideas must take on form from the very stuff of the world in which we live. Also, unlike music or literature, paintings and sculptures are still, unmoving. Although the artist’s process in making them was sequential, and although our perception of these works occurs in time, the works themselves are always there, their beginning, middle and end to be grasped as a whole, at once—in the present. We comprehend these works through their materials. The works may evoke emotions, sensations of objects we know or sense through the works, but the works themselves are always there, in all their materiality, in our world, looking back at us. Both George Bogart and James Henkle were long-time and greatly valued faculty members in the University of Oklahoma’s School of Art and Art History. Henkle joined the faculty in 1951, Bogart in 1970; both artists spent some years teaching or working elsewhere, as their biographies will show, but their longest tenure and strongest commitment
2005 Photo: Elyse Bogart
was to the University of Oklahoma. Both Henkle and Bogart were devoted to their many students and both were known to be exceptional teachers. Both were supportive
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of other faculty members and active within the university and the art community as well. George Bogart and James Henkle influenced hundreds of students, many of whom continue to pursue careers in art. For a number of years Elyse Bogart, a well-known jeweler/metalsmithing artist in her own right, has made her husband George’s paintings, sketchbooks, and journals available to me for study. Her insights into his painting methods and his love for color and the paint itself are invaluable; her memory for details has been extremely helpful to me. Elyse is
james l. HENKLE b. 1927
devoted to continuing George’s legacy by making opportunities for exhibiting the great number of his stunning works remaining in her possession. The works are so strong that they richly deserve a continuing audience. Elyse has been generous indeed with her time and inside information. In recent months I have spent many happy hours with Jim Henkle talking about his designs, his working processes, and his life with his wife Dorothy in Norman. Jim talks with continued excitement about the exceptional educational
opportunities
and
influential
teachers with whom he was privileged to work in Nebraska, New York City, and Chicago. He clearly enjoyed teaching students at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Art, and since retirement he has continued working, fulfilling many commissions for his justly wellknown furniture designs. He is generous and patient with his time and an enthusiastic conversationalist. Karyn Gilman, former editor and publisher of the international magazine, Letter Arts Review, is a noted calligrapher and graphic designer. In addition to the many hours she has spent designing this catalogue, she has also
2014 Photo: Karyn Gilman
read the text closely, suggesting clarifications of certain points. All in all, the four of us have formed a congenial and productive team. BOGART AND HENKLE / 13
George Bogart, 1970s Photo: Elyse Bogart
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george a. BOGART
The paintings and drawings of George Bogart (1933–2005) are varied in style, in part influenced by the changing art scene, but mostly reflecting his own range of interests in nature and in the world. They are strongly allied to his continuous experimentation with his chosen mediums. Bogart was born in a suburb of Duluth, Minnesota, Fond du Lac, on the banks of the St. Louis River. His family’s house was situated on the edge of Jay Cooke Park, so although he lived in an industrialized, iron-ore city, he spent a good part of his early years outdoors in the large natural park. His love of nature, reflected in many of his paintings, perhaps originated in his early childhood experiences in this beautiful natural setting. His parents were working class and somewhat impoverished, caught up, like many others, in the Great Depression. They produced much of their own food by gardening, and George’s mother made most of the clothing for her three sons. George derived at least some of his interest in making things from his mother, who, besides sewing, was involved in other crafts like knitting and embroidering and China painting. From an early age, he made many drawings on butcher paper— actual butcher paper in which their meat had been wrapped, his drawings often incorporating the red-brown color of dried animal blood.1 Although he had known from earliest childhood that he wanted to become an artist, it was in high school that Bogart became seriously attracted to art as an area of study. When he entered the University of Minnesota at Duluth, in 1951, he declared art as his major. He studied painting with Fletcher Martin and Philip Evergood in 1954 and 1955, and watercolor with Dong Kingman in 1956, the year he graduated with a B.F.A. in art. He married Janet Dissell immediately following completion of his degree, working several months for Boeing Aircraft while his wife completed a nursing program. In 1957 the couple moved to Seattle, Washington, where George entered the M.F.A. program at the University of Washington. Supported by grants and assistantships and Janet’s hospital salary, George devoted himself exclusively to painting, studying with Alden Mason, with whom he formed a friendship. He earned his M.F.A. degree in 1959.
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While he had occasionally drawn or painted human figures in his early career at the university, he became much more attracted to landscape at this time. As part of a statement for his M.F.A. thesis, Bogart wrote that he wanted to create, “through the use of space, a feeling of the land around us. Once the space is solved, one may use almost any form or color, depending on the mood you wish to express, and a feeling of landscape will be present.”2 However, in a journal entry from September 30, 1961, Bogart’s goals had changed: from that time onwards he wanted his art to become more personal, and he wanted to “get rid of landscape.” He did not want to employ “used-up symbols,” nor did he want to “copy nature.”3 I am still painting about the same size, but seeming to grow more personal in the image I present, and the color and order of the
canvas. Somehow for the first time my paintings seem to cling together and stand as a group for all I believe. The landscape overtones have all but disappeared forever…. To create a highly personal world without using time-worn symbols or abstracting from god’s most beautiful creations is a task I would like to accomplish.4 By 1961, then, Bogart had begun to create symbolic images that could stand alone without reference to objects in the natural world. While his paintings’ titles might refer to a personal theme, that theme would be embedded in an abstract, perhaps situational composition. A small watercolor from 1963, titled Alone (PLATE 1), demonstrates clearly such an abstract treatment of a personal theme. Undulating from the bottom of the space to the top against a dark background is a slender, cylindrical shape wrapped up like a mummy. Painterly brushstrokes of warm and cool blacks (reddish, greenish, yellowish) make up the background, which floats, unfinished, above an unpainted area at the bottom of the painting. The wrapped figure appears restrained, yet at the same time dynamic. If it were not for the somewhat horizontal stripes across the vertical form, one might perceive it as an opening between the two dark areas on either side of it. The stripes, or wrappings, however, give the form substance and make it a figure before a background. Although the figure is “alone” and all bound up, it possesses a sort of buoyancy and appears neither helpless nor passive. Bogart had succeeded in making a symbolic form that was not a “used-up” symbol, but one that was meaningful to him. Its meaning is deliberately ambiguous,
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endnotes 1.
Elyse Bogart, George’s widow and second wife, has supplied most of this biographical material to me over several years, beginning in the summer of 2006. The couple married in 1976.
2. Bogart’s M. F. A. thesis statement dates from 1959. 3.
Bogart kept a journal, now in the possession of Elyse Bogart. In a paginated ledger book he wrote sporadically, in a careful cursive from 1955 until 2002. Into this ledger he copied out writings by artists, critics, and literary authors; the passages are clearly selected as being inspirational to his own work and intellectual development. Each passage is identified by a title and a name. In the margins he wrote the source of the quotation, although he did not supply a full bibliographical entry. His use of the margins in this way makes for easy reference. Occasionally, Bogart would include a handwritten copy of a letter he had written to someone in his journal.
4.
This quotation, which dates from September 30, 1961, is from the above-mentioned journal.
5.
The quotation on page 5 in Bogart’s journal, is taken from James McNeill Whistler, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, 3rd ed. (1890; London: Heinemann, 1904), 128.
6.
This quotation of Miró, on page 24 of Bogart’s journal, is from James Johnson Sweeney, “Joan Miró: Comment and Interview,” originally published in Partisan Review 15, no. 1 (Jan.–Feb. 1948) in Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, ed. by Margit Rowell (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 1992), 207.
7.
Interview with Elyse Bogart, summer 2006.
8.
“Selma” spelled out on two crosses refers to the much televised disaster named “Bloody Sunday,” which took place on Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. On March 7, 1965, a blockade of Alabama state troopers and local lawmen brutally attacked a crowd of peaceful marchers on their way from Selma to the capital of Alabama, Montgomery, to join Martin Luther King. The demonstrators, led by Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), were beginning their 54-mile march to call attention to the shooting by a state trooper of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young church deacon trying to shield his mother from a trooper’s nightstick during a long campaign for voting rights. Television coverage of troops attacking the crowd on the bridge with tear gas and clubs and chasing them in retreat caused a public outrage. Ensuing events and addresses by King and others resulted in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s introduction of the Voting Rights Act, which passed Congress and was signed into law by Johnson on August 6, 1965. Accessed March 12, 2014, http://mlk-kpp01. stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_selma_to_montgomery_march/.
9.
Written at the beginning of Bogart’s 1965–66 sketchbook (FIG 1), in the possession of Elyse Bogart.
10. In Henri Matisse’s Notes of a Painter of 1908, originally published as “Notes d’un peintre” in La
Grande Revue 52 (Paris, December 25, 1908): 731–45; English translation by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., in his Matisse: His Art and His Public (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1951). Herschel Chipp reprinted it in his Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 132. 11. Interview with Elyse Bogart, summer 2006. 12. As explained by Irving Sandler in The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract
Expressionism (New York: Harper & Row, Icon Editions, 1970), 138–39): “As early as 1943, Hofmann began pitting areas of high-keyed color against each other, deriving the form of his picture from their interaction. This involved pulling receding areas up to the surface and pushing back areas that protruded, in order to flatten the picture plane. The sense of the push and pull turns a picture into a dynamic field of forces.… Clement Greenberg remarked that Hofmann addressed ‘the picture surface consciously as a responsive rather than inert object, and painting itself as an affair of prodding and pushing, scoring and marking, rather than of simply inscribing or covering.… And it is thanks in part to Hofmann that the “new” American painting in general is distinguished by a new liveliness of surface.’” The Greenberg quotation is from his book Hans Hofmann (Paris: Editions Georges Fall, 1961), 24–25. Like so many other American painters, Bogart was concerned with a “liveliness of surface” brought about in many of his paintings by the interplay of areas of brilliant colors.
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13. The author has corresponded with Elyse Bogart since about 2006 concerning a book in progress about both Bogart and Eugene Bavinger. Elyse provided information about collaboration between the two artists deriving from Bavinger’s interest in Bogart’s experimentation with making his own acrylic paint. For a short period, the two artists experimented together with new methods for making paintings. Elyse’s information helped the author to prepare a lecture presented at the Price Tower in Bartlesville and also at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art entitled, “Eugene A. Bavinger: A Painter’s Oklahoma Experience,” in conjunction with the centennial exhibition “Out of Oklahoma: Contemporary Arts from Ruscha to Andoe,” October 14, 2007. Elyse Bogart has been of great help in recent months with regard to the selection of works for the exhibition and the preparation of this catalogue. 14. From a letter Bogart had written to David Simpson, Berkeley, California, March 4, 1993; quoted in Simpson’s essay, “George Bogart: Man and a Brush,” in George Bogart: New Work, catalogue published by the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, for an exhibition from April 25 to May 9, 1993, n.p. 15. This passage is from a personal letter dated December 8, 1980, from Bogart to Enrique Montenegro. Bogart copied out the letter in his journal. 16. Jonathan Fineberg, Art Since 1940. Strategies of Being, 3rd. ed. (New York: Prentice Hall, 2001), 148, 397–403. 17. Op. cit., letter to David Simpson. See note 14. 18. Elyse Bogart relates that George was quite allergic to plants. Although he loved looking at them, he could not handle them himself. Personal interview with author, February 2014. 19. This statement, which Bogart copied out in his journal on page 46, was posted on the wall of the “Garden Chronicles” exhibition. 20. The cover illustration of this volume is Water Garden. 21. The quotation is from Maurice Grosser, The Painter’s Eye (New York: New American Library, 1961). It is on page 21 of Bogart’s journal.
George Bogart in his studio, 1975 Photo: Robert O. Wright
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James Henkle, c. 1968 Photo courtesy of James Henkle
james l. HENKLE
The Oil and Wood exhibition features a desk and a desk chair, two rocking chairs, a nesting stool, three side tables, and a coffee table—in all, nine pieces of furniture designed and constructed by Jim Henkle. Elegant works of furniture constructed in native and exotic woods do not make up Henkle’s entire oeuvre, for he has studied and taught classes in industrial and product design, graphic design, and sculpture, and he has made works in all these media and disciplines. In fact Circular, a very handsome geometric metal sculpture by the artist, has recently been installed at the entrance of the School of Art and Art History on the south side of the Fred Jones Jr. Memorial building that adjoins this museum (1971; see p. 10). It is for his furniture designs, however, that Henkle is best known and revered. He has received many commissions, both public and private, for his works. Henkle’s Norman home is furnished almost entirely with his own functional constructions. In fact, all the pieces shown here were taken directly from Henkle’s home. He designs for use, not merely for display. Yet each of these pieces holds its own aesthetically as a sculpture in wood. Besides chairs and tables, he has also constructed a number of cabinets designed, for instance, to contain his CDs and music system—for Jim loves music. He designed and built all the cabinets in his kitchen and bathrooms, as well as a beautiful large buffet of walnut. Henkle designed and constructed an intricate loom for his late wife, Dorothy, who was a fine weaver. He has modified the house he designed many years ago in a number of ways, including the addition of skylights and wooden beams that increase its three-dimensionality. He added patios and studio spaces; he designed and constructed his front door. A master at three-dimensional design and fine craftsmanship, Henkle surrounds himself with his own creations, which, by the way, include his own paintings and sculptures, and works in a number of media by his artist friends. His house is a veritable living museum of art and design. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1927, Jim Henkle grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. Even as a young boy he was attracted to constructing in the third dimension, building a number of model airplanes. By the time Jim was twelve, he had formed friendships with other boys who liked to build things. On one occasion, the boys built a vehicle that they could actually drive around the neighborhood, for Jim had found a used outboard motor to drive the wheels. Unfortunately, one of their neighbors called the police because it was so noisy. That project abruptly ended, but Jim continued to construct things. In high
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endnotes
1.
Because of the breadth of his classes, which included many applicable for an engineering degree, Henkle earned a Bachelor of Arts rather than a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
2.
Carroll M. Gantz, FIDSA, Design Chronicles: Significant Mass-Produced Design of the Twentieth Century (Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2005), 246.
3.
Rowena Reed Kostellow was named chair of the formally established Department of Industrial Design at Pratt in 1962. She is known for developing a methodology for teaching what she called the “Structure of Visual Relationships” underlying art and design, which served as a basis for many foundation programs in schools of art and design. Accessed March 9, 2014, http://rowenafund.org/publication/rrk_publication_about.html.
4.
American Seating Standards has apparently been out of print for some time. Henkle believes it was written by Henry Dreyfuss. Books that Jim used later were Dreyfuss’s The Measure of Man: Human Factors in Design, 2nd ed., an ergonomic reference book (New York: Whitney, 1960), and Humanscale 1/2/3: A Portfolio of Information by Niels Diffrient, Alvin R. Tilley, and Joan C. Bardagjy; designed by Henry Dreyfuss Associates (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1974).
5.
When Henkle arrived at the University of Oklahoma for the second time, in 1953, John O’Neil had become director of the School of Art. As Jim recalls, Joe Taylor was teaching sculpture; Emilio Amero, painting; William Harold Smith and Audrey Bethel, art education; Eugene Bavinger and O’Neil painting and graphic design; Roger Corsaw, ceramics; and Donald Humphrey, art history.
6.
Designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1956, the Eames Lounge Chair is considered to be one of the most significant Modern style designs of the twentieth century. It is in continuous production by Herman Miller.
7.
Ergonomics is an applied science that coordinates the design of devices, or furniture in this case, to how it will function most usefully and comfortably for its user in the environment in which it is to be placed.
8.
Orthogonal projection is a form of parallel projection where all the projection lines are orthogonal to the projection plane. See Maynard Patrick, Drawing Distinctions: The Varieties of Graphic Expression (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2005), 22.
9.
From James Henkle’s recent resume. Henkle says that he composed the statement for a previous exhibition.
James Henkle, 1970s Photo courtesy of James Henkle
BOGART AND HENKLE / 69
checklist of the exhibition 1966
1970
1958
Number 10 Pencil on paper, 8.5 x 9 in. Euphoric Land Oil on canvas, 30 x 42 in.
It is Altogether Fitting and Proper That We Should Do This Oil on linen, 60 x 60 in.
1966 1971
1963
Number 17 Pencil, ink, and craypas on paper, 16.5 x 20.5 in.
1966
Untitled Oil on linen, 62 x 60 in.
Alone Watercolor on paper, 17 x 17.5 in.
1970 –72
1965
Number 21 Pencil, ink, casein, and craypas on paper, 19.5 x 23.5 in.
1967 Sabbath Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 46.5 in. Advertisement for the Sunday Supplement Oil on canvas, 61 x 61 in.
1965 –72
1966 Number 11 Pencil and ink on paper, 8.5 x 9 in.
1967 In Memory of My Father Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 79 in.
1970 –73
Eulogy for the Death of Hans Hofmann Oil on canvas, 58 x 63 in.
1966 Number 20 Pencil, ink, craypas, and casein on paper, 8.5 x 22 in.
1968
Number 7 Pencil and ink on paper, 7.5 x 9 in. Chocolate Brown for David Whitney Acrylic on canvas, 96 x 72 in.
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Veteran Oil on linen, 60 x 60 in.
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman; Purchased with funds from the Charles Merrill Trust and the National Endowment for the Arts, 1973
George A. Bogart 1976
1980
1974
Studio Series, Northern Accent Acrylic on canvas, 79 x 96 in.
1976
Jazz Series, Take Five Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Boarded Up Door Acrylic on canvas, 61x 60 in.
1980
1974 Boarded Up Door Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 60 in.
Studio Series, Stonewall Acrylic on canvas, 73 x 78 in.
1977
Jazz Series, Peanut Vendor Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Norman Series, For M.E.D. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 in.
1980
1974 Confession Series, I Like Paint Acrylic on canvas, 96 x 120 in.
1980
Window Series, Night Acrylic on canvas, 84 x 120 in.
Jazz Series, Untitled Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
1975 Jazz Series, After You’ve Gone Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 in.
1980
1980
Studio Series, Double Fudge Brownie Acrylic and chalk on canvas, 78 x 78 in.
Jazz Series,Untitled Acrylic on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
1976 Jazz Series,Untitled Acrylic on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
1980
1980
Studio Series, Blackjack Acrylic on canvas, 73.5 x 72 in.
Jazz Series, Balcony Rock Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in. Jazz Series, One O’Clock Jump Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
checklist of the exhibition (continued)
1981
1980
1981
1981
Jazz Series, Kinda Dukish Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Jazz Series, I Remember Clifford Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
1981
1980
1981
1981
Jazz Series, Stompin’ at the Savoy Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
1982
Jazz Series, Jazz Me Blues Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Jazz Series, Take The A Train Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
1981
Jazz Series, Sing, Sing, Sing Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Jazz Series, Round About Midnight Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Jazz Series, American Garage Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
1980
Jazz Series, Woodchopper’s Ball Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Jazz Series, Sentimental Journey Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Jazz Series, Forest Flower Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
1980
1981
Jazz Series, C Jam Blues Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in. Collection of Bob and Judy Wright
1981 1983
Jazz Series, Scrapple from the Apple Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
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Jazz Series, One Never Knows Mixed media on vinyl record, D: 12 in.
Breaking Away Acrylic and wood on canvas, 60 x 60 in.
George A. Bogart 1985
1988
A Cup for Julian Oil on canvas, ceramic cup with mosaic, 60 x 48 in.
1985
1994
Somnambulist Scenario Oil and wax on canvas, 57 x 71 in.
Table Setting Oil on canvas, 72 x 81 in.
1995
1989
Dangle Oilstick on paper, 6 x 9 in. The Gap Oil and wax on canvas, 57 x 64 in.
1996
1990 The Nightwatch Oil on canvas, 72 x 57 in.
1987 Heat Oilstick on paper, 22 x 30 in.
1997
Musical Chairs Oil and wax on canvas, 64 x 57 in.
1992 Head Oilstick on paper, 8 x 10 in. Collection of Tim Sullivan
Down in the Dumps Oil on canvas, 72 x 57 in.
1997
1987 October Oilstick on paper, 22 x 30 in.
1992 Scholar Oilstick on paper, 6.5 x 9 in.
1997
Pandora’s Box Oil on canvas, 57 x 70 in.
1988 Push Oilstick on paper, 10 x 14 in.
1993 Shimmer Oil and wax on canvas, 39 x 50 in.
Litterscape Oil on canvas, 73 x 66 in.
Flood Oilstick on paper, 22 x 30 in.
checklist of the exhibition (continued): George A. Bogart
1997
2003
2001
Garden Chronicles, No. 1 Oilstick and oil on paper, 22 x 30 in.
Sports Fan Oilstick on paper, 8.5 x 11 in.
Water Garden Oil on canvas, 60 x 70 in.
2002 1997
2004
The Red Shoes Oilstick and spray paint on paper, 22 x 30 in.
Garden Chronicles, First Blooms Oilstick and oil on paper, 29.5 x 41 in.
2002
Weeds Oil on canvas, 60 x 70 in.
1998
2004
Curator Oil and wax on canvas, 33 x 51 in.
Garden Chronicles, Four Square Oil on canvas, 60 x 70 in.
2002
Acid Rain Oil on canvas, 60 x 70 in.
1998 2005
Father and Son Oilstick on paper, 22 x 30 in.
2001
Garden Chronicles, Signs of Spring Oil on canvas, 48 x 55.5 in.
Basket Oil, oilstick, and charcoal on paper, 22 x 30 in.
2002 2005
Cross Cut Oilstick and oil on paper, 22 x 30 in.
2001
2005
2003
Garden Chronicles, No. 1 Oilstick and oil on paper, 22 x 30 in.
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74 / OIL WOOD
Burbank Diary 13 Oil and oilstick on paper, 8.5 x 11 in.
Tacoma Oil on canvas, 60 x 70 in.
Pollination Oil, oilstick, and charcoal on paper, 22 x 30 in. Spring Planting Oil on Masonite, 14 x 14 in.
James L. Henkle
c. 1985
1980
c. 1995
Rocking Chair African padauk, 40 x 23 X 34 in.
Nesting Stool Oak, 31 x 17 x 14 in.
c. 1990
c. 1985
Rocking Chair Cherry, 38 x 22 x 37 in.
c. 2000
Coffee Table Teak, 14.5 x 41 x 25 in.
c. 1985 Side Table with Bookshelf Walnut and Zebrawood, 19 x 25 x 24 in. Desk Chair Walnut, 30.5 x 21.5 x 19.5 in.
c. 1990
Side Table Walnut, 20 x 14 x 20.5 in.
c.1985
Desk Walnut and olive, 36 x 42 x 21 in.
Side Table 2 Walnut with leather sling, 20 x 14 x 20.5 in
BOGART AND HENKLE / 75
ABOUT THE AUTHOR SUSAN HAVENS CALDWELL
Susan Havens Caldwell is a David Ross Boyd Professor Emerita of Art History. She earned her B.A. degree in French from Washburn University, attended the Université de Montpellier, France, to study French literature and art history, and earned a Ph.D. in art history from Cornell University in 1974, majoring in medieval art and minoring in medieval literature and modern art. In 1976 she joined the faculty of the School of Art and Art History at the University of Oklahoma, teaching art history for thirty-seven years and developing over thirty-five different semester courses and seminars in the areas of medieval, modern, contemporary, and methodology. She has engaged in a number of interdisciplinary projects and courses at OU and abroad. Dr. Caldwell has served as thesis chair for thirty-five M.A. students in art history and on countless other advanced degree committees in art history and
2014
studio art, as well as in the areas of music, drama, dance, environmental design,
Photo: Karyn Gilman
English, history, and French. She has published numerous scholarly articles and monographs, as well as catalogues and catalogue essays, and presented many professional papers on the subjects of Spanish Romanesque art and architecture, as well as modern and contemporary art. In addition to this exhibition, Caldwell curated and wrote a catalogue for Art of the Sixties at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in 2002, and she has curated two other exhibitions. In 1988 she coproduced with Eugene Enrico of the OU School of Music a film entitled “And They Sang a New Song”: Twenty-Four Musical Elders at Santiago de Compostela, which is distributed internationally. In addition to the David Ross Boyd Professorship, Caldwell has received a number of other awards, among them the Irene and Julian J. Rothbaum Presidential Professor of Excellence in the Arts Award, the Oklahoma Museum Association Individual Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Support to Oklahoma Museums, two OU Student Association awards, the Governor’s Arts and Education Award, and the OU Regents’ Award for Superior Teaching.
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George A. Bogart Water Garden [detail] Oil on canvas 60 x 70 in.
BOGART AND HENKLE / 77
PUBLICATION NOTES
Copyright © 2014 The University of Oklahoma This catalogue has been published in conjunction with the exhibition Oil and Wood: Oklahoma Moderns George Bogart and James Henkle at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art June 7– September 14, 2014 Curated by Susan Havens Caldwell
No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form without the written consent of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Catalogue author: Susan Havens Caldwell Catalogue designer: Karyn Lynn Gilman Copy editor: Jo Ann Reece Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma 555 Elm Avenue, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-3003
Phone: 405.325.3272; fax: 405.325.7696 www.ou.edu/fjjma Emily Ballew Neff, Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director and Chief Curator Mark A. White, Eugene B. Adkins Curator and Senior Curator of Collections Gail Kana Anderson, Deputy Director and Liason to University President Library of Congress Control Number: 2014938056 ISBN: 978-0-9851609-5-1 This catalogue was printed by the University of Oklahoma Printing Services and is issued by the University of Oklahoma. 1000 copies have been printed and distributed at no cost to the taxpayers of Oklahoma.
Cover: George Bogart, Water Garden, 2003, oil on canvas, 60 x 70 in. Back Cover: James Henkle, Rocking Chair, c. 1985, African padauk, 40 x 24 x 35 in.
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78 / OIL WOOD
ABOUT THE VENUE
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma
Photo: Eric H. Anderson
The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is widely regarded as one of the finest university art museums in the United States. The museum’s growing collection features nearly 17,000 objects. Highlights include the Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism, the Eugene B. Adkins Collection of art of the American Southwest and Native American art, the James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection, twentieth century American painting and sculpture, ceramics, photography, contemporary art, Asian art, and works on paper from the sixteenth century to the present.
BOGART AND HENKLE / 79