One reads in the art history books that Abstract Expressionism happened in New York and San Francisco.  Except it also happened in the interior of America, making it awkward for art historians who wish to paint a tidy picture of the movement.  A groundbreaking exhibition, Macrocosm/Microcosm: Abstract Expressionism in the American Southwest, documents the significant painting and sculpture occurring from the 1950s to the 1970s in five states—Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art in Denver is loaning three works to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, for the first exhibition given on this subject, on view from October 3, 2014 to January 4, 2015. They are two paintings by Vance Kirkland (1904–1981) and one metal sculpture by Wilbert Verhelst (1923–2012).  Kirkland Museum joins other loaning institutions including The Museum of Fine Arts—Houston, The Harwood Museum of Art—Taos, Philbrook Museum of Art—Tulsa, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden—Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, The Oklahoma City Museum of Art, The Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (with a considerable collection) and many other public and private sources.

In all, the show features work by about 40 American painters and sculptors, represented by about 60 pieces. “Macrocosm/Microcosm reveals that modernists in the region not only kept pace with aesthetic innovations on national and international levels but avoided mere imitation by addressing the essential qualities of the local and regional,” said Mark Andrew White, the Eugene B. Adkins Senior Curator and Curator of Collections at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. “In this respect, this exhibition also provides a new perspective on art in the Southwest.” Artists in the exhibition include Edward Corbett, Elaine de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Beatrice Mandelman, Agnes Martin, Louis Ribak and Colorado artists— Charles Bunnell, Ken Goehring, Vance Kirkland, Janet Lippincott (attending Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center for one summer), Charles Strong, Wilbert Verhelst and Emerson Woelffer.

Vance Kirkland (1904–1981)

As a nationally and internationally exhibited artist and founder of three art schools in Denver, Kirkland was a leader in the regional art community and a key proponent of modernism, particularly surrealism and abstraction, in the region. Kirkland first delved into Abstract Expressionism in 1950 by mixing denatured alcohol into his watercolors. By 1953, Kirkland had invented a new resist technique, using his extensive experience from twenty-seven years as a watercolorist, but now with oil paint. He stirred water into oil paint in jars, then poured the loose mixtures onto a flat canvas, guiding it around. Dried bubbles are visible in the oil paint where the water once was, giving his unique surfaces a moon-like, cratered texture. His titles often refer to outer space and suggest the nebulae and galaxies of his imagination made visible: macrocosms depicted in paint.

Wilbert Verhelst (1923–2012)

He was a museum curator, sculptor, painter and teacher. He earned his BFA and MFA at the University of Denver. He served the Denver Art Museum as an assistant curator and associate curator from 1952 until 1957, and again from 1958 to 1960 as Curator of Exhibitions. He also was the director of the Sioux City Art Center in 1957. Verhelst received 20 sculptural commissions for public buildings in Colorado, Texas and Louisiana, and also completed numerous small-scale metal sculptures such as Untitled (Sprouting Flora), loaned to the exhibition.

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is widely regarded as one of the finest university art museums in the United States. The museum’s growing collection features nearly 17,000-objects. Highlights include the Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism, the Eugene B. Adkins Collection of art of the American Southwest and Native American art, the James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection, 20th century American painting and sculpture, ceramics, photography, contemporary art, Asian art, and works on paper from the 16th century to the present. Their current exhibition space measures approximately 40,000 square feet.

Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art

Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art has loaned many art works to 54 Colorado institutions in 18 towns and cities, 31 national institutions in 20 states, and 17 international institutions in 11 countries. Kirkland Museum displays an internationally important collection of decorative art from about 1875 to about 1990. More than 3,500 objects are on view. Colorado and regional art is also shown, with over 200 artists on view at any one time. The museum additionally features a retrospective of Colorado’s distinguished painter, Vance Kirkland (1904–1981). Kirkland Museum is scheduled to finish building a new museum at 12th Avenue and Bannock Street, Denver, in 2017. That location is almost across the street from the Clyfford Still Museum and around the corner from the Denver Art Museum. For more information, please visit www.kirklandmuseum.org.

A 95-page color catalog has been produced for this exhibition and is available for purchase ($19.95 plus tax and/or shipping) at either Kirkland Museum or Fred Jones Jr. Museum—or online at http://www.ou.edu/content/fjjma/shop/ExhibitionCatalogs.html