In Fall 2020, students led by Associate Professor Louise Siddons created a digital project documenting the art exhibition history of Oklahoma State University, with the assistance of Digital Scholarship Librarian Megan Macken. Students used the digitized archive of the student newspaper, the Daily O’Collegian—today the O’Colly— to construct a database of exhibitions held between 1960 and 1999.
Here on the collection blog, we’re featuring reflective essays written by students about their work on this project, based on the research they did to compile the online exhibition history. This week’s essay is by Jonathon Williams. It has been edited for length and clarity. Note that although recent style guides suggest capitalizing Black when referring to people, I have respected Jonathon’s choice in this regard.
Surveying OSU’s exhibition history from 1985 to 1989, there aren’t any common themes; instead, there was a lot of variety. They all seem to share the goal of bringing many different types of art to OSU, with different mediums on display along with different styles of art.
During this time, exhibitions were organized mainly by the faculty and students. Outside organizations also organized a few of the shows such as Run for the Arts in 1986, which the Stillwater Art Guild helped organize. Within this time period there were also various shows organized by individuals, such as Richard Bivins’s solo exhibition in 1989, organized by the artist, who was a professor and head of the Art Department at OSU during that time.
The audience’s response was always positive in regards to the shows. The paper didn’t really offer any critical commentary, but occasionally would offer the opinions of the people who visited the exhibitions or who helped put the exhibition together in the first place. For example, in 1988, Polaroid photographs by Leslie Bellavance, then a professor at the University of Wisconsin, were shown after the gallery committee at OSU said they were “intrigued by the shapes and images of her work.”
The two exhibitions, one celebrating African American art in 1989 and the other, “We Too Sing America,” in 1985, both centered around black artists and were set up either by the students or faculty at OSU. The African American Art exhibition consisted of paintings and sculptures by black people and their experiences in America along with some sculptures relating to African roots. “We Too Sing America” was a photographic essay about the black communities in Oklahoma. The photographs were described as candid and posed shots, one example being children sleeping in their mother’s arms. The issues regarding race and how black people are treated in America that these exhibitions addressed are still relevant today. Today, these topics could still be shown through similar forms. Paintings and sculptures can be one of many ways to raise awareness of the injustices African Americans face.
Curator’s note: The OSU Museum of Art has an outstanding collection of African art, and in 2015 organized the exhibition “Wákàtí: Time Shapes African Art,” which included this Bamana chi wara. For more information about our African art collection, as seen through the eyes of students, you can read past blog posts by Krystle Brewer and Mary Kathryn Moeller, Brogan Ross, and others, as well as several by me.
The attitude the African American Art exhibition took toward current events seems to have been pretty neutral. The show was one part of a bigger event which at that time was called Black Awareness Week. The Daily O’Collegian article did highlight the fact that the paintings the black artists made were about their experiences in America, but it did not go into any specifics on what was portrayed in any of the paintings. Furthermore, the attitude that “We Too Sing America” took towards current events at the time appears to be neutral as well. The information given about the exhibition in the paper did not cover any controversial or political issues. The show was composed of well received photography and poetry about the black community in Oklahoma.
Both exhibitions’ main focus was black artists displaying their daily lives, culture, and experiences through different mediums. While both of the exhibitions are an important part of OSU’s history, from the perspective of American art history there are a few gaps that I noticed. What is missing in the Daily O’Collegian’s coverage of these exhibitions is detailed information that goes over what each exhibition is about. Although each article has a brief overview about the artist and a few details about some of the art work, I noticed that some of the issues that black artist would have faced at the time seem to have been overlooked. From what I have learned, many black artists used art as a way to fight against injustice, and the fact that I couldn’t find any info relating to this in the O’Colly, at least in this time period, is disappointing.
I would like to propose an African American history art exhibition that would address this lack of detailed information by having art on display that has history and meaning behind it. The exhibition would not just be composed of black artists but black artists that specifically create art to preserve the history and culture of Africans and black Americans. The African American history art exhibition that I propose would respond meaningfully to the current events and issues regarding race and how black people are treated in America.
Oklahoma State University Art Collection 