The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is opening two exhibits called “Fighters for Freedom William H. Johnson Picturing Justice” and “Art and Activism at Tougaloo College.” These exhibits will be available to the public starting on Saturday February 18th and ending on Sunday May 14th.
“Fighters for Freedom” is a collection of paintings by William H. Johnson, a black artist from South Carolina, who created paintings from the 1920s-1940s. He attended the National Academy of Design in New York. After attending the National Academy of Design, he went to Europe to learn about different modernist styles of art.
According to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, “On his return to Europe in 1938 he abandoned his expressionistic brush work and adopted a faux naive style to depict the lives of black Americans.”
Johnson wanted to capture the experience of black Americans that were working against racism to create a better future for themselves and their peers. He was able to demonstrate his newfound inspiration to create art that reflected his culture by painting both historical people and events in black history.
This exhibit is full of art that memorializes many black historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Marian Anderson and Booker T. Washington as well as shed light on the harsh reality of racism through depictions of lynching and violence against black people.
Dr. Rosie May, the exhibit curator, explained that this exhibit is meaningful to black history because of the research and attention to detail that Johnson took while creating these works of art.
“He really showed people that African American history is American history, and that black Americans have been fighting for liberty since the beginning of this country,” May said. Many of the paintings in this exhibit are very colorful and show a particular historical figure surrounded by impactful scenes from their life as well as symbols of their accomplishments and the people or places they influenced.
Art and Activism at Tougaloo College features pieces that are a part of the first collection of modern art in Mississippi at Tougaloo College. This collection of art is significant to black history because it was created in 1963 amidst segregation and the civil rights movement as a way to show racial activism.
The Oklahoma City Museum of art explains the efforts that Tougaloo College made to make art more accessible to black Americans during that time.
“Tougaloo’s early acquisitions afforded many students and visitors their first exposure to the modern styles of Europe and New York. This rang especially true for Black patrons, who, as a result of Mississippi staunch segregationist policies, were excluded from many public institutions but welcomed within Tougaloo’s integrated community.”
As I was observing the art created by Picasso it occurred to me that similar to the black visitors at Tougaloo College in 1963, this exhibit was my first exposure to modern art as well. The Art and Activism at Tougaloo College exhibit is still actively carrying on the mission of its founders to expose African Americans to modern art today.
The exhibit is organized into three galleries that show the evolution of diversity in the collection. In the first room there is art from several world renown European artists such as Matisse, Picasso and George Grosz. However, the next two rooms include a mixture of American, European and African American artists. Some of the African American artists included in this exhibit are Hale Woodruff, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Mayhew and Alma Thomas.
“This exhibit trowels a broader, more diverse story for our visitors…we are thrilled to have this exhibition at the same time as William H. Johnson,” May said.
Along with opening these new exhibits the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is working to make their exhibitions more interactive and accessible to the public by offering virtual field trips, creating touchable 3D replicas of art and displaying QR codes so that visitors are able to read and listen to the history and descriptions of the art on their phones.
Virtual field trips from the Oklahoma City Museum of Art are free and available to PreK-12 as well as college classrooms. The virtual field trips are held using Zoom and are led by a museum educator. Virtual field trips can be scheduled online and both the Fighters for Freedom and Art and Activism at Tougaloo College exhibits will be available to explore virtually.
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art has also partnered with NewView Oklahoma to create four touchable 3D art replicas within the Fighters for Freedom exhibition to accommodate blind and low vision visitors.
“Touchable versions of works of art are great for pretty much everyone because a lot of people come into a museum and they want to touch works of art, especially kids,” May said.
The 3D replica of a piece called “Women Builders” was my favorite of the touchable works of art because it was placed directly in front of the real painting and I was able to closely examine the painting while physically connecting with the replica. There are also QR codes posted next to every work of art in the Fighters for Freedom exhibit to make the text accessible to read and listen to on a mobile device.
“We also have special double taped lines that NewView uses in their factory in front of all of our QR codes…so that somebody who is using a cane as a directional aid could find the QR codes,” May said.
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art will also be holding various events related to their new exhibitions. On March 2nd from 6pm to 8pm there will be a panel conversation centered around art and activism where artists from Oklahoma will discuss how they have created art to represent activism and advocacy from marginalized groups. This event requires pre-registration and will cost $16 to the public. On March 15th and 17th from 2pm to 3:15pm the Oklahoma City Museum of Art will also be holding a film screening for ages 9 and up called Celebrating Black Stories. Finally, on April 1st at 2pm there will be an event called One Work Many Voices where a single work of art from the exhibit will be discussed by a museum facilitator and guests from the community. Pre-registration is required for this event and it will be available for 5$ plus the cost of admission. Tickets for these events can be purchased online at okcmoa.com.
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