There’s nothing like that new-car smell, so just imagine stepping into the Tulsa Auto Show at Expo Square this weekend when manufacturers from Audi and Ford to Volkswagen and Infiniti will have the newest models of cars, SUVs, trucks and other vehicles (concept and custom cars) on the floor of the River Spirit Expo. All that awesome new-ness will be matched only by other attractions at the show, including the Route 66 Auto Show featuring classic cars and the show market with the perfect gifts and accessories for your favorite motorhead. The show is open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, and from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, April 13. Tickets are $4 for ages 7-12 and $8 for ages 13 and up. For other details, see www.exposquare.com.
Magically Angry by Bryan Cooper. Image courtesy OSUIT.
Pete’s Pistol by John Hammer. Image courtesy OSUIT.
Thursday, April 10, 6-9 p.m.
The stream of talent coming out of OSU’s Institute of Technology has enhanced the creative professional climate of Oklahoma for years. Now it’s time to help the Oklahoma State University Okmulgee campus’ program and benefit deserving students furthering their education. ART Plus is an art exhibit and auction of works by alumni of the OSUIT Visual Communications Division. The silent auction begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 10, at the Hardesty Arts Center, 101 E. Archer St., in Tulsa’s Brady Arts District. Browse and discuss the work while enjoying light hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine. All proceeds of the auction benefit students in the division, which includes studies in graphic design, photography and 3D modeling and animation technology. For more, visit www.artplusosuit.org.
UPDATED with photo above. She towered above the fronds of Palm Springs, Calif., for nearly two years. Now a leggy, colossal Marilyn Monroe statue en route to New Jersey is about to stop in Tulsa in time for the Brady Arts District First Friday Art Crawl.
The disassembled Forever Marilyn will be hauled into town Friday afternoon. Created by artist Seward Johnson out of stainless steel and aluminum, it depicts Monroe in the famous subway grate scene from The Seven Year Itch, director Billy Wilder’s 1956 comedy film starring Monroe as The Girl of Tom Ewell’s fantasies. The statue first took its place on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue in 2011 before it was moved to Palm Springs in May 2012. Forever Marilyn is being shipped cross-country to be featured in a retrospective art exhibition of work by the 84-year-old Johnson from May to September at the New Jersey State Fairgrounds in Hamilton, N.J.
Beloved by some, deplored as “grotesque” by others, Forever Marilyn stands 26 feet tall when fully assembled, but Tulsans will have to settle for her in pieces — the statue weighs in at 36,000 pounds. A waist-up likeness of Monroe in the iconic, billowing white halter dress, however, will provide plenty of photo ops. The statue will be parked outside of the Hardesty Arts Center, 101 E. Archer St., in the Brady Arts District in downtown Tulsa. It is expected to arrive by 4 p.m. Friday, April 4, and will remain overnight before pushing off for its next stop.
Photo by Gregg Felson.
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The Tulsa Drillers get the advantage when it plays its season opener against the Corpus Christi Hooks at ONEOK Field, 201 N. Elgin Ave., on Thursday, April 3, at 7:05 p.m. The Drillers play Corpus Christi through Saturday, April 5, and then the San Antonio Missions from Sunday, April 6-Tuesday, April 8. Visit www.tulsadrillers.com for ticket information, a full game schedule and a look at special events throughout the season.
It was a long, rough winter for many, which means most of us are looking forward to warm days ahead filled with live music and fun outdoors. The Guthrie Green books another round of entertainment and more on the lawn beginning this weekend. First, the Guthrie Green welcomes a taste of the upcoming Norman Music Festival. Tulsa band All About a Bubble plays the green at 7 p.m. Friday, April 4. Presented by the Tulsa Film and Music Office, the band offers a sampling of what they’ll play at the big Norman concert event later this month. The official Guthrie Green opening day celebration takes place on Sunday, April 6, with great bands on the stage. Look for the Erica James Band at 2 p.m., the Tequila Songbirds at 3:30 p.m. and the Eric Himan Trio at 5 p.m. Arrive earlier in the day and take advantage of the Sunday Market from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every Sunday through the end of October. Events are free and open to the public. To learn more about events and other information, visit www.guthriegreen.com.
Beaded bracelets (Lone Ranger and Tonto), 1999, by Marcus Amerman (Choctaw). Photo courtesy Philbrook Museum of Art.
Ex-Patriot, 1964, by George Morrison (Chippewa). Image courtesy Philbrook Museum of Art.
Saturday, April 5, 8 a.m.-5:45 p.m.
Philbrook Museum of Art spends a day examining Identity & Inspiration: Creativity in 20th & 21st Century Native American Art, a symposium from 8 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Saturday, April 5. With its own collection of Native American art spanning centuries, Philbrook welcomes guest speakers W. Richard West Jr., president and CEO of the Autry National Center in Los Angeles; Nancy Mithlo, associate professor of art history and American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kathleen Ash-Milby, associate curator of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.; W. Jackson Rushing III, professor and chair of art history at the University of Oklahoma; and Gerald McMaster, independent curator and scholar. The day will include looks at collections at the museum, 2727 S. Rockford Ave., as well as the exhibition Identity & Inspiration at Philbrook Downtown, 116 E. Brady St. Tickets are $25 each, available at www.philbrook.org.
Why did the farmer leave the dell? To set up a booth at the Cherry Street Farmers’ Market on opening weekend, Saturday, April 5, from 7-11 a.m. Show up early for great selections of locally-grown produce, farm-raised meats and other products gathered and created in the region by enterprising individuals we call friends and neighbors. Also look for caterers preparing special selections for the Saturday morning crowd. The market is located on 15th Street between Peoria and Rockford avenues. For more, check out www.cherrystreetfarmersmarket.com.
They’re headlining Chicago’s three-day Lollapalooza music festival in August, but you can have the Kings of Leon all to yourself (kind of) Tuesday, April 8, at the BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave., Tulsa. The Followill family of rockers are on the second leg of an American tour for the band’s latest album, Mechanical Bull, its sixth. The Nashville band with Oklahoma ties – the brothers and cousin grew up for a time in the state – hit it big in 2008 with singles such as the Grammy Award-nominated “Sex on Fire.” Special guest band Local Natives open the show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $29.50-$59.50, available at www.bokcenter.com.
Fitzerman stand among the photos in Unexpected. Photo by Brandon Scott.
“I bought my very first picture at a shop in Atoka, (Okla.) right before I stopped for fries and a Coke.”
This is where Rabbi Marc Boone Fitzerman’s fascination with old photographs began.
“The dapper young man depicted in the photo has the perfect geometry of a Renaissance prince in an Old Masters painting,” Fitzerman says. “When a photograph reveals some inner world of mathematically perfect forms, I can’t stop looking.”
This trance has culminated in a 40-photograph exhibit called Unexpected, which runs through May 11 at Philbrook Downtown.
This exhibit of “vernacular photography” in some ways explores both the development of popular photography and the forgotten photographs that litter antique malls and flea markets across America.
Fitzerman notes that when “we take a camera in hand, it’s typically to record or memorialize, not to fulfill a grand, self-conscious ambition. Many photographs were taken in this commemorative spirit, including snapshots, vacation Polaroids, industrial and trade images and pictures shot in small-town studios by journeymen photographers.”
Examples of these types of photographs can be viewed in the exhibit. They are material “largely ignored in the official narrative of photography, which has its own heroes and virtuoso performers,” he says.
But vernacular photography – photography of the people, of the average citizen – also has much to bring to the contemplation of the art of photography.
It is not so much the story of the photographs that compels Fitzerman as the matter of discernment, which evokes a series of questions for him: What does the image disclose about the world of the photographer? What was she or he likely trying to communicate? Are there thoughts and emotions that the image triggers?
These questions of artistry and psychology intersect with Fitzerman’s work as the leader of Tulsa’s Congregation B’nai Emunah, a position he has held since 1985. Fitzerman says that he talks about photography a lot at the synagogue because he thinks there is a “natural affinity” between Jews and photography.
“Everyone knows the problem of the Second Commandment: The making of images offends against the standards of the first Israelites,” he says.
However, he adds, “photography is right on the border of ‘making’ and ‘taking.’ For Jews entering the world of Western art in the 20th century, photography was a good fit. It allowed them to participate fully in the fashioning of art and somehow honor the taboo against graven images.”
None of Fitzerman’s own works appear in the exhibit. Instead, Fitzerman says, “People have begun to hand me photographs they think I might find interesting.”
These gifts came with a price, though.
“I used to think it was strange to handle this material, and it made me feel awkward and conflicted,” he says.
Yet, the unique aspect of this exhibit is that the “refuge” he has made for these photographs can be altered.
“If anyone sees a family member in an exhibition or a display, I’d be glad to surrender the picture on the spot,” he says. “Vernacular photographs are lower to the ground, democratic and approachable. I think we love them because they feel close to the bone. Every one of them could be a shot from our own family albums.”
Photo by Brandon Scott.
Photo by Brandon Scott.
Rabbi Marc Boone Fitzerman and Philbrook Director Rand Suffolk at Unexpected. Photo by Brandon Scott.
