Bartlesville, OK
Woolaroc Museum, October 18-December 29
Jeremy Lipking, Riders Under Vermilion Cliffs, 2015, oil, 30 x 40, collection of Michael and Judy Lombard.
This story was featured in the October 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
ON A hillside surrounded by a 3,700-acre wildlife sanctuary, the Woolaroc Museum preserves the history of the American West through an outstanding collection of art and artifacts first begun by oilman Frank Phillips, who founded Phillips Petroleum in 1917. Today the museum encompasses some 50,000 square feet, with 10 spacious exhibition galleries. Starting this month, the works normally on display in high-ceilinged Room Six, the largest gallery, make way for the Woolaroc Retrospective Exhibit and Sale, which features more than 150 paintings and sculptures by eight of the finest living artists who focus on western themes. Each artist is showing about 10 retrospective pieces plus eight new works that are for sale.
The participating artists are avian sculptor and natural historian Tony Angell; western landscape painter Clyde Aspevig; contemporary southwestern painter Logan Maxwell Hagege; still-life, landscape, interior, and figurative painter Quang Ho; animal sculptor Tony Hochstetler; contemporary western realist painter Jeremy Lipking; wildlife watercolorist Thomas Quinn; and plein-air painter Skip Whitcomb. All of the artists are present for the opening reception on Friday, October 18, from 6 to 9 p.m. Special guests, dignitaries, and sponsors join the artists for a gala cocktail party in the museum, followed by dinner in a large tent on the grounds.
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- Tony Hochstetler, Rhinoceros Beetle (Large), 1991, bronze, 20 x 18 x 14, collection of Clay and Julie Speer.
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- Skip Whitcomb, Ascension, 2005, pastel, 24 x 24, collection of Tim and Cathi Newton.
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- Quang Ho, 27-Year Feast, 1995, oil, 30 x 24, collection of the artist.
Saturday’s ticketed activities begin at 10:30 a.m. with a lecture on creativity presented by Angell. “It’s an honor to have been selected and asked to be part of the show,” he says. A buffet luncheon follows in Woolaroc’s historic lodge home, built by Phillips in 1925. Another talk follows at 2 p.m., with Quang Ho explaining how to understand painting by observing nature. “It is a sweet acknowledgement of the hard work I’ve put into painting,” says Ho of his participation.
The sale event begins back in Room Six at 6 p.m. that evening. Accompanied by live jazz, cocktails, and buffets, guests submit intent-to-purchase slips for each new painting or sculpture in which they’re interested, and then the buyers are chosen by drawing.
The variety of works available represents the very best of these master artists. Angell’s AT REST, for example, depicts a shorebird that has settled down atop a stone, conveying, says the artist, “that sense of contentment and relaxation, that all is right with the world.” Ho notes that he is “particularly fond of the composition and handling of paint” in his piece THE FARM HAND. Expect works of equally high caliber from Aspevig, Hagege, Hochstetler, Lipking, Quinn, and Whitcomb.
“I would certainly be proud to have all eight of these artists in our permanent collection,” says Bob Fraser, CEO of the Frank Phillips Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving the history of the West through the Woolaroc. He gives particular credit for the high quality to Dean Zervas, director of the show, and Kathy Zervas, event chairperson. All of the artworks, both vintage and new, are on view to the general public starting on Sunday, October 20, through December 29. —Norman Kolpas
contact information
918.336.0307, ext. 10
www.woolaroc.org
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- Clyde Aspevig, Mount Henkel, Glacier Park Mountains, 2011, oil, 36 x 40, collection of the artist.
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- Tony Angell, Pushing Off, 2017, bronze, 21 x 13 x 10, collection of Bill Klein.
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- Logan Maxwell Hagege, All the Wild That Remains, 2018, oil, 42 x 40, collection of the artist.
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- Thomas Quinn, Bosque Farewell, 2015, watercolor, 25 x 39, collection of Charles Bowen.
This story was featured in the October 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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