Will Rogers Memorial Museums:
A Museum of Art
Fine
art flourishes in the Will Rogers Memorial.
Life-sized
oil paintings and heroic-scaled statuary combine to add another dimension
to the story of Will Rogers, which has long been told in words, photographs
and motion pictures. |
PAINTINGS:
DOG
IRON by Wayne Cooper
HOWDY
by Wayne Cooper
BEST
FRIENDS by Wayne Cooper
Dog Iron by Wayne Cooper. This nine-foot-by-six-foot oil on canvas depicting Will Rogers herding horses at the Dog Iron Ranch was commissioned in 1990 at a cost of $35,000. Print art was established. Two three-foot-by-four-foot complimentary oil on canvas paintings by Cooper were commissioned in 1995 for exhibit in the West Gallery. Originally exhibited in the Will Rogers Theater at Branson, Mo., Howdy, an equestrian painting by Cooper, was moved to the Will Rogers Memorial in 2000. Memorial Portrait of Will Rogers by Charles Banks Wilson. This seven-foot oil on canvas was completed in 1992 at a cost of some $80,000. Print art was established. Twenty-two sketches of Will Rogers, from the pen of Wilson, have been acquired by the Will Rogers Memorial. Wilson’s 1979 oil-on-canvas of Rogers, which became known as the Southwestern Bell painting, was commissioned for one million telephone book covers, and the original was donated to the Will Rogers Memorial and exhibited permanently. Spirit of Will Rogers: Friend for the Twenty-First Century by Torres Rojas of Buenos Aires, Argentina. This six-foot “prismatic abstraction” was gifted by David Cambridge Christner of Longboat Key, Florida, and was appraised at $250,000. Print art was established. (Placed on loan in 1944 to the Will Rogers Theater, Branson, Mo.) |
| Two oil-on-canvas portraits of Will Rogers by Frank Szasz were acquired and exhibited in the Will Rogers Memorial. Additionally, some 3,330 Szasz prints were acquired. |
STATUARY:
Riding Into the Sunset by Electra Waggoner. This heroic-sized equestrian statue was commissioned by Fort Worth, Texas, publisher Amon Carter. One of four known bronze versions of this work is posed over the tomb of Will Rogers at the Claremore museum. It depicts Will Rogers on his favorite horse, Soapsuds, facing the West, holding his hat in his right hand. Other castings are at the Anatole Hotel in Dallas, the Will Rogers Center in Fort Worth and on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock. A half-size plaster and a bronze bust from the statue are exhibited in the Claremore museum. Never Met a Man I Didn’t Like by Jo Davidson. This heroic statue was cast twice, with one copy in the Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C., and the other in the rotunda of the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore. In conjunction with the Oklahoma governor’s industrial advisory board, a ten-inch copy of this Davidson statue was executed during the 1990s by Oklahoma sculptor John Gooden. The Oklahoma governor uses the copy as a state gift. Other copies are sold in the Will Rogers Memorial gift shop and elsewhere. Will Rogers on a Horse With No Name by Charles M. Russell. Completed in 1924 in two distinct versions. The artist hand-painted a ten-inch plaster of the statue and presented it to Betty and Will Rogers. Their grandchildren (Bette Rogers Brandin, Kem Rogers and Chuck Rogers) donated the original to Will Rogers Heritage, Inc., in 1999 for permanent exhibit at the Claremore museum. It was appraised at $600,000. One version of the statue depicts the erroneous “Dog Iron” brand instead of the proper “wineglass” brand. From Life statuary by Dr. Emil Seletz. Three pieces by the Los Angeles artist were donated to the Will Rogers Memorial in 1994 and 1995. Foremost of the three is a bronze bust of Will Rogers, the only known sculpture of him “from life.” The bronze is the original of two castings. Included in the Seletz collection are two Will Rogers cast heads. The artist also donated a twelve-inch bronze statue of Will Rogers astraddle a horse. Will Rogers Roping a Calf by John Hampton. With an $18,000 gift from Terra Nitrogen, Inc., this bronze by the Arizona artist, co-founder of Cowboy Artists of America, was acquired in 1995 and placed on permanent exhibit. Remington Bronzes. Five bronze replicas of Frederic Remington statuary, including Coming Through the Rye and Polo Players, were acquired in 1991 by Will Rogers Heritage, Inc., for exhibit in the Memorial. The pieces were purchased by Joseph H. Carter, museum director, at an opportunity price with cash contributed to Will Rogers Heritage, Inc. Jim Rogers, a son of Will Rogers, donated a ten-inch Tex Wheeler statue of Will Rogers, which was recast for sale. The original hand-painted plaster version was donated by Jim Rogers for permanent exhibit at the Claremore museum. Canadian artist Joe Biel was commissioned by Will Rogers to replicate in plaster two famous ten-inch pieces by Charles M. Russell, Changing Outfits and Stagecoach. For years, these works were in the Rogers family ranch near Santa Monica, California, and were prized by Will Rogers along with other fine art. Given to them by their grandmother, the three children of Jim Rogers (Bette Rogers Brandin, Chuck Rogers and Kem Rogers) donated this priceless art to Will Rogers Heritage, Inc., and the Will Rogers Memorial. Bronze recasts of the two Russell works were acquired by Will Rogers Heritage, Inc., for hands-on exhibits in the West Gallery with the originals secured in shadow-box settings. |