Exhibition | YogisDen.us

2026 is the 100th Anniversary of the founding of Route 66 and there have been a bunch of commemorations, celebrations, and parades and Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art has jumped in with an offerring of their own showing how Route 66 and Modernist Painting have grown up together. My brain locks up trying to think about it but I think it works. If you are not getting brain lock every now and then then your brain dies and that is not good.

We start out with a vintage Ford Model T. There we go, I am relaxing already. I’ve seen a bunch of these before.

The early days. The Depression. My parents were children of the Depression and it marked them and their generation for life and they passed some of the trauma on to their kids. I’m generally a happy person but I also believe that things can get worse and often do.

Here we have Figural Abstraction by Eugenie Baizerman – 1945+/-. We’re out of the depression but it is close. Here is an abstract piece that I get. The figures in it seem to move to me.

The 1950’s came around (and so did I). The economy is getting better people have money, they are buying stuff and they are traveling to see the sights. To me this is the peak of Route 66.

Gracie Hartigan - East River Drive - 1957

And we have Gracie Hartigan’s – East River Drive – 1957. Another work that I love. It’s kind of a mess and I love the colors but I think I get the vibe of it.

Here’s the 1960’s. Note that the art shown is The-New-Designs by Grace Hartigan in 1951

Here is the perfect painting for the 1960’s: the Grand Tetons by Kay Walkingstick – 1969. I really like this one a lot. Don’t make me tell you why.

Untitled (VSF243) from Expansionist Series by Vivian Springford 1972

The 1970’s come. The freeways paralleling Route 66 get built. People jump on them to go where they want to faster. Otherwise the 70’s are mess; disco music, Howard Cosell, gas shortages, inflation, ugh. The art is: Untitled (VSF243) from Expansionist Series by Vivian Springford 1972. I actually like it although I don’t really understand it.

So hey if you have time and are in Tulsa go check out Philbrook. They always have something going on.

I’m linking with Through My Lens

One of the many things I like about museums is that I learn stuff that I didn’t know before. I mean I learn things that I had no clue about. A recent trip to Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum taught me something. It was about a photographer named Gordon Parks. I had never heard of him before, but it turns out he was a major talent. You can read more about the exhibition here.

He was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1912 and had a rough life. (Check out his Wikipedia page.) He bought his first camera when he was 28 years old and taught himself how to take photographs. He went to work as a fashion photographer at a woman’s clothing store. He eventually opened his own portrait studio

He specialized in portraits of society women. He also photographed the life of African Americans in Chicago. He eventually worked for the government in various capacities. After World War II, he became a freelance fashion photographer for Vogue Magazine. Then later for Life Magazine.

Parks also directed films. He wrote and directed Shaft, a detective film and several others. He had a very productive life and died in 2006.

The thing about photographers is that they have that “eye” for things. They can take great photos regardless of the equipment they are using. I used to work with a woman who had that eye. She would win the company’s photography awards using just her phone for a camera.