NEW EXHIBIT FEATURES WORK OF EARL BISS

Gilcrease Museum will open its newest exhibit, The Poetry of Line: The Pen and Ink Drawings of Earl Biss, April 12 at the museum. The exhibit will continue through October 12, 2008.

More than 50 drawings make up the exhibit, which is the first time on display since becoming part of the Gilcrease permanent collection in 2004. While Biss is widely known for his paintings, these drawings let the visitor view his work from a different perspective.

“Biss was among the most thoughtful of his generation of artists,” Randy Ramer, interim senior curator, said. “His subjects are often very emotional and speak to his upbringing at Crow Agency in Montana.”

Earl Biss (Crow/Chippewa) was a central figure during the 1960s as he helped change the face of Indian and Southwest Art. “Biss’ work represents an important departure from traditional approaches to Native American art,” Carole Klein, assistant curator in the art department at Gilcrease Museum, said. “Biss became a central figure among a group of very innovative artists during the 1960s at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe that included Fritz Scholder, T.C. Cannon, and Kevin Red Star.”

Biss contributed to the changing face of Native American art and experimented with Abstract Expressionalism, allowing him an emotional outlet which he used as a tool to present a contemporary Native American perspective, portraying in a modern visual language the Indian living in the modern world. His landscapes and themes drawn from the history of the Crow Nation allow Biss to present a Native American perspective using contemporary visual language.

The drawings explore the expressionistic nuance of shadow and light affected by dark ink on paper. The drawings that make up the exhibit were produced between 1995 and 1993.

GILCREASE MUSEUM HOSTS ANNUAL RENDEZVOUS CELEBRATION

Tulsa, Okla. – Gilcrease Museum kicks off Rendezvous 2008 with the traditional Evening with the Artists, Art Sale and Gala Dinner, Friday, April 18th, 2008 featuring artist Tim Shinabarger and celebrating the life and works of Hollis Williford (1940-2007). Over 30 award-winning Rendezvous artists will be participating in this year’s event.

“Rendezvous is one of Gilcrease Museum’s premier events and a major source of funding to support our nationally-renowned public and educational programs, exhibitions and services,” museum interim director Gary Moore said.

Montana native Tim Shinabarger is an award-winning sculptor as well as an accomplished painter. His wildlife studies and monumental celebrations of big game animals have earned him honors and recognition from the National Sculpture Society, the Society of Animal Artists, and several prominent museums.

Hollis Williford (1940-2007) was the featured sculptor at Rendezvous 1988. At that time he was already an accomplished painter and sculptor. He is the first artist to be featured twice at Gilcrease Museum’s Rendezvous. Etchings, drawings, oils and sculpture of Williford’s will be available for purchase.

Gilcrease Museum Announces Purchase of 101 Ranch Collection

Gilcrease Museum is pleased to announce the acquisition of one of the largest collections of Western Americana in the museum’s history with the purchase of 101 Ranch: The Real Wild West. A press conference will be held 11 a.m. February 7, 2008, in the Vista Room at Gilcrease Museum. The exhibit will go on display July 12 and run through January 25, 2009.

Over 3,000 objects comprise this collection including such relics as rare photographs and posters, costumes, and dozens of historical firearms once owned by Wild West show notables like Stack Lee, Tex Cooper, Zack Miller, and sharpshooter Lillian Smith, better known as “Princess Wenona.”

“This is one of the most important acquisitions since the time of Thomas Gilcrease,” Gilcrease Museum Interim Director Gary Moore said.  “It’s important not just in terms of size and quality, but also in regard to historical significance.”

The collection, valued at nearly $2 million, was purchased with help from Randi and Fred Wightman, the Gilcrease Museum Endowment Trust, and the City of Tulsa.

The collection was bought from Jerry and Ruth Murphey, 101 Ranch memorabilia and historical artifacts experts. Gathering 101 Ranch memorabilia since he was 15 years old, Jerry Murphey wanted the collection to be in Oklahoma, available for everyone to share.

Founded by Col. George C. Miller in the late 1800s near present day Ponca City, the ranch grew to some 110,000 acres and became the most prominent and profitable farming and ranching enterprise of its time with the help of Miller’s three sons – Joe, George, and Zack. The 101 Ranch became an icon of the American West and was proclaimed “the largest diversified farm and ranch in the world.” In 1905, the Miller Brothers gathered together some of the ranch’s cowboys to create one of the most exciting and successful Wild West shows of its time. The “Miller Brother’s Real Wild West” show featured 101 Ranch cowboys like Tom Mix, Bill Pickett, Hoot Gibson and Yakima Cannutt, and later included Ruth Roach, Lucy Mulhall - known as “America’s First Cowgirl” - and even Buffalo Bill.

“Although the 101 Ranch is no more, its legacy continues to have a tremendous impact on Oklahoma and the nation, as well as the folklore and history of the American West,” Michael Wallis, author of The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West, said. “On this ranch, the West of imagination collided and merged with the West of reality – a spectacle that can never be duplicated.”

The 101 Ranch also became famous for its location of many Western films shot there at the time. “Some of our first moving pictures were filmed at the 101 Ranch,” Gilcrease Museum Collections Manager Randy Ramer said. “It was a perfect location for filming, with their own hoards of buffalo and steer, cowboys and Native American performers, and hundreds of thousands of acres to film on, the 101 had everything.”