Carolyn Hill (May 1, 1938 - May 12, 2010)

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing Carolyn Hill, retired executive director of Oklahoma City Museum of Art, who died in Oklahoma City on May 12, 2010 following an extended illness. She was 72. Carolyn will forever be remembered for her lifelong love, passion, and achievements in the arts and for leaving behind her indelible mark on the fabric our community.

A native Oklahoman, Carolyn received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Oklahoma then completed post-graduate studies at The Julliard School, New York, and The Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria. Her interest in the arts extended beyond music, and she continued her studies in art history at major European museums during several summers abroad.

She spent more than 30 years in New York City, where her professional career focused on the arts and arts education. She taught music and was director of the art and music department at the United Nations International School, music director and conductor of the Livingston Symphony Orchestra, and president and director of the Carolyn Hill Gallery.

She returned to Oklahoma City in 1993 to care for her aging mother and was appointed executive director of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in 1994. During her tenure, she was instrumental in raising the funds for the Museum’s move from its location at Fair Park to the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City, as well as the funds for the purchase of 18 glass installations by Dale Chihuly, the largest collection in the world. She also brought national recognition to the Museum with the establishment of film and education programs and outstanding international exhibitions, including the blockbuster exhibition Roman Art from the Louvre.

“Through her passion for the arts, strong leadership and bold vision, Carolyn Hill transformed the Oklahoma City Museum of Art from a small museum at the fairgrounds into a vibrant and very important cultural component of our city and state. Equally adept at promoting Roman Art from the Louvre or NBA basketball, Carolyn played a major role in our collective effort to elevate Oklahoma City to the next level,” said Frank Hill, chairman of the Museum’s board of trustees.

Carolyn retired as executive director of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in December 2008. Upon stepping down, she wrote: “I have been more than fortunate to have worked with a dedicated board and staff to advance the Museum’s development. It has been serendipity that these years have coincided with the City’s renaissance. I have every confidence that the Museum’s best days lie ahead.”

Revered by her staff, patrons and friends, Carolyn was the recipient of the By-liners Award for Arts in 1997, the Governor’s Arts Award in 2001 and the Stanley Draper Award for Community Excellence in 2003, and was inducted in The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools’ Wall of Fame in 2008.

Carolyn was preceded in death by her parents, Virgil and Flora Hill, and her brother, Russell Hill. She is survived by her sister-in-law, Lois Hill, niece Debra Zobel, and cousins Philip Waters, Terri Gillick, Steven Knapp and Scott Knapp. Carolyn and her family and friends will be forever grateful to her dedicated caregivers who helped make her life meaningful during her illness.

A funeral service will be held at St. Paul’s Cathedral, 127 NW 7th Street in downtown Oklahoma City, on Wednesday, May 19, 10:00 a.m. A reception will be held at St. Paul’s immediately following the service.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, Oklahoma City, OK, 73102.

Carolyn Hill (May 1, 1938 - May 12, 2010)

Friends’ Lecture: “Gustave Courbet Revisited”
Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
By Kathryn Calley Galitz, Ph.D., assistant curator, Dept. of 19th-century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This lecture offers an overview of the work of the Realist painter, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), a pioneering figure in the history of modernism and the subject of a 2008 retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Courbet, the self-proclaimed “most arrogant man in France,” launched his career with a series of paintings of his native Ornans, whose subject matter and emphatically realistic style shocked the Paris art world in the early 1850s. Throughout his career, he courted controversy, challenging the artistic establishment with works that flouted accepted standards. His art profoundly influenced the next generation of artists, notably Cézanne.

Friends’ lectures are free to Museum members at the Friend, Friends, and Sustainer membership levels. Seating is limited to 250, and reservations are recommended. Prices are $15 for general membership levels and $20 for nonmembers per ticket. For more information, contact Jim Eastep at 236-3100, ext. 215 or e-mail jeastep@okcmoa.com

Così Fan Tutte, Opera in HD from Salzburg
Thursday, November 19, 7 p.m.
Noble Theater

Performed at the Salzburg Festival 2009, Così fan tutte is an experiment designed to reveal the truth about women’s supposed lack of faithfulness. This stage work – in some ways Mozart’s most radical – is not so much a “School for Lovers” as a continuous dissection of hearts. In the tension between love and passion, security and self-negation, faithfulness and betrayal, couples get lost in emotional chaos. Mozart’s music traces the inner contradictions of his figures, without ever betraying them, and suddenly makes us doubt our confident belief that we can separate playfulness from earnestness, dream from reality. Conducted by Adam Fischer, Directed by Claus Guth, Starring Miah Persson, Isabel Leonard, Topi Lehtipuu, Florian Boesch.

SPECIAL PRICE: $20 Adults/ $18 Members, Students, Seniors. Call 405-278-8237, Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm. Purchase online

Coco Before Chanel
Friday & Saturday, November 20 – 21, 5:30 & 8 p.m.

Coco Before Chanel is the story of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (Audrey Tatou), who began her life as a headstrong orphan and, through an extraordinary journey, became the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom, and style. The film portrays the formative years of Chanel’s life, and the years Chanel spent discovering and inventing herself. The production was given the support of the Maison CHANEL, who opened their archives and collections. In French with English subtitles. Director: Anne Fontaine 2009 France 105min. PG-13 HDdigital

Fall Family Festival featuring
The Dutch Italiantes!
Sunday, November 22, Noon-4 p.m.

In celebration of The Dutch Italianates, OKCMOA invites you to spend a day with the Dutch at their fall festival Family Day on Sunday, November 22 from noon-4pm. Families can visit the Museum of Art to view the exhibitions and enjoy fun-filled activities for all ages, including hands-on art, face painting, mini-tours, a family activity guide, door prizes, and live performances featuring the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. In addition, the Metropolitan Library will present story times throughout the afternoon.

All activities are included in the price of Museum admission: $12 adults, $10 students/seniors, $10 military and free to members and children ages 5 and under.

• Hands-on art activities: Landscape Collages, Mini Cezanne Still Life paintings, and Impressionist Summer Garden Watercolor paintings
• Face Painting
• Mini-tours led by museum docents
• Family activity guide for use in the gallery
• Door Prizes
• Live performances featuring the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and the Oklahoma City Orchestra League’s Instrument Playground, as well as Classen SAS String Quartet
• Dance demonstrations by Classen SAS French Club, and Alliance Française OKC will give mini-French lessons on colors and basic greetings
• Story Times presented by the Metropolitan Library System

Support provided by Sonic.

Activities are appropriate for all ages and are FREE with paid museum admission. $12 adults, $10 seniors, students & military with ID. FREE for members and children 5 & under.

The François Zola Dam by Paul Cézanne, ca. 1877–78

Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection
Oklahoma City Museum of Art
June 25 through September 20, 2009

A French town steeped in snow, cavalrymen playing a game of cards in a tavern and a young woman garbed in brilliant blue staring at me as though she knew me — all are images swirling in my head as I leave Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection. The exhibition, which is currently at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, features 47 paintings from the romanticism, impressionism and post-impressionism eras. In addition to Turner and Cézanne, other prominent nineteenth century artists are also represented. The paintings are from the collection of Gwendoline (1882-1951) and Margaret (1884-1963) Davies, the granddaughters of Welsh coal and railway baron David Davies.

The exhibition opens to eight small works by British master J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). While small in scale, the works still express Turner’s enormous appreciation and awe of nature. Turner creates imminence and movement through his use of thick painterly brushwork that leaps off of the canvass and engages the viewer. The Storm, for example, conveys the frightful moments just before the rapacious sea claims its maritime victims.

The romantic theme continues with works by Camille Corot (1796-1875), Honore Daumier (1808-1879) and Jean-François Millet (1814-1875). Corot and Millet are known for their landscapes, and fortunately, the exhibition features a few of them such as Millet’s The Gust of Wind. In this bucolic scene, a shepherd scurries to herd his flock during a violent windstorm. The shepherd is oblivious to the massive uprooted tree that the wind has hurled his way. As scores likely have before me, I left the painting wondering the fate of the hapless shepherd.

The exhibition transitions from romanticism to realism with the works of artists such as Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891). The detail in Meissonier’s Innocents and Card Sharpers (A Game of Piquet) astounds; his meticulousness gives life to his subjects. The scene depicts a group of seventeenth century cavalrymen playing cards in a tavern. The soldiers’ dress conjures images of the Three Musketeers with their large plumed hats and brightly colored tunics. Amused and seasoned card sharks sit opposite uncertain and inexperienced youths. Friends of the card sharks stand behind them. One friend casually observes the farce with his hands enfolded behind him, and another looks on while enjoying his pipe. A flask of wine and a half-empty glass sit on a bench in the foreground. This painting intrigued me; I returned to it two or three times.

The impressionists are next in the exhibition. At least one or two works from each of the major impressionist artists —Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Pissarro, Manet and Sisley— are represented. Each painting is compelling but I was particularly drawn to Edouard Manet’s (1832-1883) Effect of Snow at Petit-Montrouge. Manet painted this work during the Prussian siege of Paris in the winter of 1870. In the painting snow blankets the village of Petit-Montrouge, a suburb of Paris. The dreary gray sky is briefly interrupted by a splatter of light gray that is the town’s church steeple. The collage of black, brown and gray interspersed with vivid white expresses desolation, sadness and despair; which Manet must have felt during the Prussian siege.

I would be remiss if I did not mention La Parisienne by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). In this full-size portrait, Renoir portrays a young Parisian woman dressed in the brightest blue imaginable. The woman stands above her viewers, gazing upon us with a hint of a smile. La Parisienne is quintessential Renoir. The blue is brilliant, but not overpowering and the woman’s gaze is not judgmental, but sensual. She is an ephemeral image of the nineteenth century Parisian woman.

The exhibition culminates with only two of Cézanne’s works: Provençal Landscape and The François Zola Dam. This was the exhibition’s only flaw. I had expected to see more of Cézanne’s works, given the title of the exhibition. With that said, I still recommend taking the drive to Oklahoma City to experience the Davies sisters’ wonderful collection.

The Storm by Joseph Mallord William Turner, ca. 1840–45

The François Zola Dam by Paul Cézanne, ca. 1877–78

The François Zola Dam by Paul Cézanne, 1877-78

From Press Release

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art (OKCMOA) is pleased to announce the presentation of Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales, opening June 25 through September 20, 2009. A selection of 47 paintings-many of which have been rarely exhibited outside of Wales-and 11 important works on paper will reveal the cross-currents between artists and movements that propelled nineteenth-century painting from the romantic naturalism of J.M.W. Turner to the post-impressionism of Paul Cézanne. The works on view are drawn from the collection of Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, Welsh sisters who were among the most important art patrons in Europe at a key moment in the history of painting. The exhibition includes eight works by Turner, five by Jean-François Millet, three each by Camille Corot and Claude Monet, and two each by Cézanne, Edouard Manet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The clear connections among the various works acquired by the Davies sisters, particularly the inclusion of British artists such as Matthew Smith and Robert Bevan, whose work responds to French modernism, suggest an astute and informed understanding of ‘early twentieth century painting. The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts and National Museum Wales. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

“We are pleased to present this important exhibition from the National Museum of Wales.  The Davies collection is world-renowned and it is with great excitement that we bring these works of art to Oklahoma City,” said President & CEO Glen Gentele.

La Parisienne by Renoir, 1874

Gwendoline (1882-1951) and Margaret (1884-1963) Davies were born in the Welsh village of Llandinam. They were grandchildren of the famed industrialist and philanthropist David Davies and enjoyed a privileged upbringing. After attending private school near London, the sisters traveled extensively throughout Europe and began acquiring art. They quickly established themselves as important patrons and were among the first to purchase works by Corot, Honoré Daumier, and Millet. The Davies’s extensive knowledge and financial independence allowed them to spend more than 110,000 (approximately $12 million today) building their impressive collection by 1913. The sisters ceased collecting at the outbreak of World War I in order to focus on charitable activities, including a volunteer stint with the Red Cross in Troyes, France. In 1920, they purchased a mansion called Gregynog near their childhood home in Wales, which they soon turned into a forum for arts and culture, attracting an international circle of educators, artists, and politicians. Their steadfast belief in advancing the study, practice, and appreciation of art in Wales led them to donate their collection of 260 paintings and works on paper to National Museum Wales. Margaret bequeathed Gregynog to the University of Wales in 1960, shortly before her death.

Turner to Cézanne begins with late works by the British master J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), including Morning after the Wreck (ca. 1840) and The Storm (ca. 1840-45). Turner’s oils and watercolors presage modern painting with their emphasis on loose, painterly brushwork, first-hand observation, and atmospheric effects. His revolutionary break with the mandates of mimesis, or exact copying of nature, would later have a tremendous impact on the impressionists, particularly Claude Monet (1840-1926). Turner’s influence is readily apparent in Charing Cross Bridge (1902), one of the three canvases by Monet in the exhibition. Monet’s own brushstroke became increasingly fractured and his palette more tonal as he studied Turner’s oeuvre during sojourns to London.

In France, the work of the Barbizon school paralleled Turner’s romantic naturalism. Breaking from the traditions of classical landscape painting and biblical subject matter, artists such as Camille Corot (1796-1875) and Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) left their studios to paint, or outdoors. The three paintings on view by Corot include Distant View of Corbeil (ca. 1870), which depicts an idyllic landscape with a harmonized palette and feathery brushstrokes. Millet’s unfinished Winter: The Faggot Gatherers (1868-75), a haunting image of peasants from Normandy, underscores the many radical changes-including a new appreciation of the creative act itself and an elevation of scenes of modern life from secondary to primary importance-that propelled French art toward impressionism and post-impressionism. Although misunderstood in its own day and sometimes perceived as conservative in ours, the Barbizon school was integral to the rise of modern art and opened the door to artists of many genres seeking to explore a new realism in France.

Following the precursors of Turner and the Barbizon school, the exhibition presents an important early work by Edouard Manet (1832-1883): Effect of Snow at Petit-Montrouge (1870). Often described as Manet’s first impressionist work, the painting conveys the unflinching scene of destruction in the suburbs of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Applying broad, fluid strokes of gray, brown, and white directly onto the canvas, the artist perfectly captures the unique half-light of a dreary winter’s day, an effort that foreshadows his interest in effets de neige, or snow effects. Following Corot’s precedent by working on the spot and sur le motif, or from the subject (there is no discernible under-drawing in the work), Effect of Snow at Petit-Montrouge is a first instance of the spontaneity and direct observation that would characterize impressionism.

In addition to the strikingly modern work by Manet and Monet, including the latter’s renowned Waterlilies (1906), the exhibition features Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s masterpiece La Parisienne (1874), which demonstrates impressionism’s commitment to depicting modern life. The painting depicts the beautiful young actress Henriette Henriot directly confronting the viewer with a coquettish gaze. Rather than naming his sitter, Renoir presents her as a social type-the beguiling ingénue seen at the theater or in the shops and cafés of Paris. This follows the proclamation of nineteenth-century poet Charles Baudelaire, who called for contemporary artists to engage with modern life.

The exhibition culminates with several post-impressionist works, including paintings by Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. In 1918, Gwendoline Davies bought Cézanne’s Provençal Landscape (ca. 1877) and The François Zola Dam (ca. 1877-78), one of Cézanne’s most admired paintings. A few years later, she acquired van Gogh’s magnificent Rain-Auvers (1890). This evocative image, which dates to the last week of the artist’s life, conveys a sense of solitude through its open, panoramic composition.

Visitor Information

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is located in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City’s Arts District, at 415 Couch Drive.  Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The Museum is closed on Monday and major holidays. (405) 236-3100. Cafe hours are Sunday Brunch, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Monday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (405) 235-6262.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art (OKCMOA) is screening independent, foreign language and classic films every Thursday through Sunday. This week the Noble Theater will feature Everlasting Moments directed by Jan Troell in 2009. Show times are 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 4, and 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Friday, June 5, and Saturday, June 6. Everlasting Moments is rated PG and runs 131 minutes.

At 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 7,  OKCMOA presents the La Scala Opera Series of Il Viaggio a Reims. This is opera in High Definition. Il Viaggio a Reims is conducted by Ottavio Dantone and directed by Luca Ronconi.

Next Week

The OKCMOA will headquarter the 2009 deadCENTER Film Festival starting 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 11. Films inlcude:

• Pearl directed by King Hollis
• Official Rejection directed by Paul Osbourne
• Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo directed by Brad Beesley
• Weather Girl directed by Blayne Weaver
• Yveete directed by Rogelio Almeida Marquez
• Remarkable Power! directed by Brandon Beckner
• Best of Fest Short Films

Check the OKCMOA web site for dates, times and tickets.