Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
Encyclopedia
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
campus in Norman, Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
Norman is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is located south of downtown Oklahoma City. It is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, Norman was to have 110,925 full-time residents, making it the third-largest city in Oklahoma and the...
.
Overview
The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is one of the finest university art museums in the United States. Strengths of the nearly 16,000-object permanent collection (including the approx. 3,300-object Adkins Collection and the more than 3,500-object James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection) are French Impressionism, 20th century American painting and sculpture, traditional and contemporary Native American art, art of the Southwest, ceramics, photography, contemporary art, Asian art and graphics from the 16th century to the present.The museum has become well known in art circles for its fine art collections, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and photographs.
The main collections are:
- The Weitzenhoffer Collection, a collection of paintings by various Impressionists, including Edgar DegasEdgar DegasEdgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
, Claude MonetClaude MonetClaude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, Mary CassattMary CassattMary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
, Vincent van GoghVincent van GoghVincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
, Camille PissarroCamille PissarroCamille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
, and Pierre-Auguste RenoirPierre-Auguste RenoirPierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
. Valued at over $50 million, it is considered the most important collection of Impressionist art ever donated to a university. - The Fleischaker Collection, a large collection of more than 350 pieces of Native AmericanNative American artVisual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present...
and southwestern paintings, sculpture and ceramics, including some of the most famous works by Russian Taos painters Leon Gaspard and Nicolai FechinNicolai FechinNicolai Ivanovich Fechin was a Russian-American painter known for his portraits and works featuring Native Americans. After graduating with the highest marks from the Imperial Academy of Arts and traveling in Europe under a Prix de Rome, he returned to his native Kazan, where he taught and painted...
. - The McGhee Collection, which features dozens of Eastern Orthodox icons dating back to the 15th century.
- The Thams Collection, containing 32 paintings by members of the Taos Society of ArtistsTaos Society of ArtistsThe Taos Society of Artists was an organization of visual arts founded in Taos, New Mexico in 1915; it disbanded in 1927. The Society was essentially a commercial cooperative, as opposed to a stylistic collective, and its foundation contributed to the development of the tiny Taos art colony into...
. Together with the Taos paintings in the Fleischaker Collection, this gift give OU one of the world's leading collections of Taos art. - The State Department Collection was purchased by the museum in 1948 from the controversial Advancing American Art collection. Hailed as a "cultural Marshall PlanMarshall PlanThe Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
," this traveling exhibit was created by the Department's Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs to demonstrate to the world America's cultural superiority in the mid 20th century. Highly criticized as too abstract, it was dismantled by congress after only two years and sold to various institutions. Highlights of the collection include works by Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'KeeffeGeorgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...
and Edward HopperEdward HopperEdward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
. - The Eugene B. Adkins Collection - The Adkins Foundation Board announced in 2007 that the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa had been jointly selected to receive the Eugene B. Adkins Collection. The joint partnership by OU and the Philbrook was among many proposals submitted by leading museums across the country. The Adkins Collection, which is valued at approximately $50 million, features approximately 3,300 objects, including more that 400 paintings by American artists. The collection also includes impressive examples of Native American paintings, pottery and jewelry.
- The James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection, a multimillion-dollar collection of more than 3,500 works representing indigenous cultures across North America, especially the Pueblos of the Southwest, the Navajo, the Hopi, many of the tribes of the Northern and Southern Plains and the Southeastern tribes. Bialac gave his private collection to the University of Oklahoma in 2010. Included in the collection are approximately 2,600 paintings and works on paper, 1,000 kachinas and 100 pieces of jewelry representing major Native artists.
Special exhibitions are held every few months to showcase works in the museum's permanent collection, traveling exhibitions and more.
History
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum was founded in 1936 by OU art professor Oscar Jacobson, who became the museum's first director and served in that post until his retirement in 1950. It originally featured only 250 works, all of which were collected by Jacobson. After a donation later that year of hundreds of pieces of East and Central Asian art by Lew Wentz and Gordon Matzene of Ponca City, OklahomaPonca City, Oklahoma
Ponca City is a small city in Kay and Osage counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, which was named after the Ponca Tribe. Located in north central Oklahoma, it lies approximately south of the Kansas border, and approximately east of Interstate 35. 25,919 people called Ponca City home at the...
, the university moved the museum to the former library building, which is now Jacobson Hall. Under Jacobson's tenure as director, the museum greatly expanded its collection of Native American art
Native American art
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present...
, including many works by the Kiowa Five
Kiowa Five
The Kiowa Five or Kiowa Six is a group of six Kiowa artists from Oklahoma in the 20th century. They were Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Lois Smoky, and Monroe Tsatoke.-Background:...
, who had studied under Jacobson in the 1920s.
The collection continued to grow, and in 1971, a building just for the large collection was built, and it was officially established as the Fred Jones Jr. Memorial Art Center. In 1992 it was re-named the Fred Jones, Jr., Museum of Art. When current OU president David Boren
David L. Boren
David Lyle Boren is an academic leader and American politician from the state of Oklahoma. A Democrat, he served as the 21st Governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1994. He is currently president of the University of Oklahoma. He was the longest serving...
arrived at OU in 1994, he and his wife Molli Shi Boren began a campaign to expand the museum's collections, which has resulted in many of the museums most valuable acquisitions.
2000 was a watershed year in the development of the FJJMA's collections, with the gift of the Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism. In 2003, it became apparent that the original facilities could not properly display enough of the museum's rapidly growing collection. Construction began on a $14 million new wing to the museum, which, when completed two years later, doubled the museum's size. Designed by Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
based architect Hugh Jacobson, its signature "hut-like" design has made it one of the most recognizable buildings on campus.
In 2005 the museum opened the new addition, named in honor of Mary and Howard Lester of San Francisco.
In 2007, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the Philbrook Museum of Art were named stewards of the Eugene B. Adkins Collection. To properly display OU’s portion of the Adkins Collection, the University began construction on a new level above the original museum structure. Named after OU Regent Jon R. Stuart and his wife, Dee Dee, and designed by acclaimed architect Rand Elliott, the Stuart Wing provides 8300 square feet (771.1 m²) for the Adkins Gallery and a new 4500 square feet (418.1 m²) photography and works on paper gallery. The renovated space also houses selections from the James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection. The project is scheduled to be completed in fall 2011.
Since 2007, Ghislain d'Humières has been the Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.
External links
- Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art info, photos and video on TravelOK.com Official travel and tourism website for the State of Oklahoma
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Fred Jones, Jr., Museum of Art