OKC Museum of Art bringing exhibits spotlighting icons Ansel Adams, Picasso and Rodin

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art has announced it will show works by iconic artists Pablo Picasso , Auguste Rodin and Ansel Adams in the coming year.

An exhibit of three prints by Picasso will open Aug. 24 on the downtown OKC museum's second floor. The exhibition, organized by Townsend Art Advisory LLC, examines the printmaking process of the legendary Spanish artist (1881-1973) in the last years of his life.

The exhibition showcases three prints and their various proofs — "Portrait of a Young Woman after Cranach the Younger II," "Pique II" and "Bacchanal with Kid Goat and Onlooker" — showing Picasso's unique printmaking process as well as his inventive contributions to the art itself.

Jessica Provencher, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art's curator of exhibitions, called the Picasso exhibit an opportunity to showcase Picasso's printmaking, which some people might not associate with the art icon arguably better known for his paintings and sculptures .

"It also explores his interest in his Spanish heritage, mythology and the Classical past, and the work of European Old Masters, themes that dominated his long career," Provencher said in a statement.

Rodin returns to OKC Museum of Art with sculptural masterwork

Also opening Aug. 24 will be a single-gallery installation featuring Rodin's "The Three Shades," on loan from a private collection.

It will mark a return of Rodin's work to the OKC museum, which last year exhibited about 50 sculptures by the legendary Frenchman (1840-1917) renowned as "the father of modern sculpture." Last summer's special exhibition "True Nature: Rodin and the Age of Impressionism" also featured paintings and sculptures by Rodin's now-iconic Impressionist contemporaries, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne.

The upcoming installation will spotlight one of the masterworks of modern sculpture with Rodin's "The Three Shades," which was originally created as part of "The Gates of Hell," an enormous set of bronze entrance doors commissioned in 1880 for a decorative arts museum to be built in Paris.

Rodin's initial inspiration for "The Gates of Hell" came from "Inferno" (which is Italian for "hell"), the first part of Italian poet Dante Alighieri's (1265–1324) epic poem  "The Divine Comedy." Although the Paris museum never opened and the doors were never fully realized, the commission embarked the artist on the defining project of his influential career, and some of his most famous works, like "The Thinker," started out as part of the collection of monumental sculptures but were spun off and cast as separate works.

"Starting this August, we'll have the incredible opportunity to present this iconic masterpiece and examine Rodin's process in a new way," said museum President and CEO Michael Anderson in a statement.

Ansel Adams photographs coming to OKC in 2025

Opening in June 2025 at the OKC museum, the exhibit "Discovering Ansel Adams" will feature more than 100 photographs that share Adams' most celebrated works, while revealing aspects of his development that are frequently overlooked.

Along with rare archival materials, photographs in this large special exhibition will span Adams' entire career, from small, one-of-a-kind prints from his teenage years to a set of mural-sized prints showcasing some of his most famous views.

Focused on America's most well-known photographer (1902-1984), "Discovering Ansel Adams" is organized by the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, with the support of The Museum Box.

Edith Head exhibit to show Hollywood costumes designed by eight-time Oscar winner

In the meantime, "Edith Head: Hollywood's Costume Designer," a retrospective of the beloved film industry icon, premieres June 22 at the downtown OKC museum.

Organized by the OKC Museum of Art, "Edith Head: Hollywood's Costume Designer" will pay tribute in glamorous fashion to the behind-the-camera legend who helped define the style of classic Hollywood with her striking designs, which snagged her 35 Academy Award nominations and eight Oscar wins — more than any other woman to date.

With more than 400 films to her credit, Head (1897-1981) ruled the costume design departments at Paramount and Universal Studios from the early 1920s to the early 1980s. The exhibit, which will be on view through Sept. 29, will span the museum's entire third floor and include about 70 costumes, 20 sketches, three Oscar statuettes and two screening areas devoted to Head's life and work.

The blockbuster summer show, presented by the Ann Lacy Foundation, will feature Head's designs for many of the biggest stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, including Grace Kelly, Barbara Stanwyck, Audrey Hepburn and more.

"We're a museum that has film as one of our key tenets of our identity, and to do a costume exhibition of this scale, of this caliber ... with objects from these films that people care so deeply about, that was the motivation for us," Anderson said.

For more information on upcoming exhibitions, go to https://www.okcmoa.com .

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Museum of Art announces Ansel Adams, Picasso and Rodin exhibits