The Romans have arrived
Preston Pendergraft, left, and Dru Isaacs are silhouetted as they look at “Relief Showing the Reading of Auguries and Declaration of Sacred Vows” during the members preview Wednesday night of the “Roman Art from the Louvre” exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. (Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman.)
From Thursday’s The Oklahoman.
Monumental exhibit leaves mark on viewers
The Roman invasion starts today and is expected to conquer Oklahoma City.The long-awaited special exhibition “Roman Art from the Louvre” opens to the public today and runs through Oct. 12 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Museum members were offered a preview Wednesday.
“I think it’s wonderful. It’s amazing to get to see this in Oklahoma City,” said Lucy Kemether, who works at Colonial Art Gallery.
Standing at the feet of a towering sculpture, Kemether said she couldn’t choose a favorite item from the vast show.
“They’re all just so exceptional. It’s hard to pick out just one out of the bunch,” she said.
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art announced the “Roman Art from the Louvre” exhibit more than two years ago. Museum Executive Director Carolyn Hill expects at least 50,000 people to view the exhibit.
“We’re hoping for more,” she said. “We are really excited, to say the least.”
“Roman Art from the Louvre” is the largest and most distinguished traveling exhibit to come to the museum. The Oklahoma City museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Seattle Art Museum were the only three U.S. venues chosen for the exhibit, Hill said.
“It certainly lifts us to the top tier of international exhibits, into the top-tier cities. It puts us in a position for consideration for other blockbusters in the future,” Hill said.
Museum members Preston Pendergraft and Dru Isaacs of Oklahoma City said the preview had been marked on their calendar for months.
“It’s pretty spectacular,” said Pendergraft, a retired interior designer with a longtime interest in ancient Roman art. “I’ve been to the Louvre, and it sure is nice to see something like this in Oklahoma City.”
Isaacs said she never expected to see an exhibit of this magnitude in Oklahoma City.
“When I was young, I got to visit Rome, so this brings back good memories,” Isaacs said.
Contemporary painter Don Joint of New York was in town doing business with Colonial Art. He visited the preview as a guest of the gallery.
“I’ve been to the Louvre a bunch of times, and it looks just as good here,” he while examining “Fragment of a Statue of Augustus as Supreme Pontiff.”
He said the Oklahoma City museum, which he has visited several times, did a professional job.
“It’s the best show I’ve ever seen here,” he said.
“Roman Art from the Louvre” includes 184 sculptures, jewelry, furnishings, sarcophagi and other items dating from the early first century B.C. to the sixth century A.D.
“The idea was to introduce the general public to the Roman empire,” said Cecile Giroire, curator of the Louvre’s Roman art collection and co-curator of the exhibit. “We tried to give an idea of the variety of Roman art.”
People who visit the once-in-a-lifetime exhibit will be stunned, Hill said.
“I think they’re going to be able to take away from it a stunning concept of sheer beauty, of sheer scale, a tremendous, overpowering sense of history,” she said.
IF YOU GO
‘Roman Art From the Louvre’
When: Today through Oct. 12. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Admission: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, free to children 5 and younger and museum members.
Information: 236-3100 or www.okcmoa.com.
-BAM
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[...] to the Roman art exhibit doesn’t cost anything extra—all you have to pay is the $12 standard museum entry fee. While [...]