E X H I B I T I O N F E AT U R E
RECALL/RESPOND
A G I L C R E A S E M U S E U M / T U L S A A R T I S T F E L L O W S H I P C O L L A B O R A T I O N by Laura Fry
W
hen Thomas Gilcrease built his art collection through the 1940s and 1950s, he frequently worked with contemporary artists of his day. Woody Crumbo, a Potawatomi artist from Oklahoma, advised Gilcrease and helped guide his acquisitions of Native American art. Mr. Gilcrease established an artist in residence program in the 40s and 50s to support regional artists and add contemporary art to the Gilcrease Museum collection. However, through the late 20th century and early 2000s, Gilcrease Museum had primarily focused on historical material for exhibitions and scholarship.
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But a new Gilcrease is on the horizon. Recently, Gilcrease Museum has started to introduce contemporary art to the traveling exhibition schedule and to permanent collection galleries, expanding the overall scope of exhibition offerings. In 2016, Gilcrease presented the exhibition Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain, a retrospective of surreal sculpture and expressionist paintings, drawings and printmaking by Rick Bartow, a contemporary Wiyot artist from the Pacific Northwest. Bartow’s work was followed by exhibitions of contemporary paintings by Kay WalkingStick and T.C. Cannon. Going forward, the museum’s
next presentation of contemporary art is an exhibition co-created by Gilcrease and Tulsa Artist Fellowship (TAF). Recall/Respond is a two-part juried exhibition of work by artists who are part of the TAF. Established in 2015 by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, TAF cultivates Tulsa’s arts scene by recruiting and retaining artists and arts workers to our community where they have the creative freedom to pursue their crafts while contributing to a thriving cultural community. Currently, 60 arts practitioners of diverse disciplines are living and working in Tulsa’s Arts District. For this exhibition, Gilcrease invited current and former