GET YOUR PHIL!

By popular demand, Phil is back. You wanted to see more pics from his road trip. Well, here you go.

Phil is going to take a much-needed break from traveling for a while. But when he heads out again into
that great unknown, you can be sure that he will have his trusty camera with him.

The Mysterious Basquiat

PHILBROOK FOODIE

Our Head Cheff, Whitt Baker, from la Villa Restaurant will be featured on KRMG’s OK Foodie show with Dan Potter on Saturday at 1pm. Tune in to Oklahoma’s only food and wine show as Whitt shares his secrets for making Israeli Melon Soup, Smoked Salmon Salad, Smoked Duck and Andouille Sausage Jambalaya and Crème Brule with Fresh Berries.

Yum!

THE SMITHSONIAN COMES TO PHILBROOK

TONIGHT
Time: 6:00 pm
Members Only
Room: Patti Johnson Wilson Hall

Smithsonian forensic anthropologist, Dr. David R. Hunt is coming to Tulsa to share his knowledge of human mummies, the mummification process and what we can learn today from forensics. This is an event that should not be missed.

PHIL IN AMERICA: PART 3

Here are a few more random images from Phil's Midwestern museum trip.


AMAZING STATUE OUTSIDE THE ST. LOUIS ART MUSEUM


NEAR SOME RICHARD SERRA SCULPTURES AT THE DES MOINES ART CENTER


OUTSIDE THE MCA IN CHICAGO

PHIL IN AMERICA: PART 2

Today I paid a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago. There was a GIANT Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit going on that I could have enjoyed for days. But here are a few highlights. More to come tomorrow!

SISTER WENDY FILM TOMORROW

Tomorrow our very own Tanya Paul will be introducing this great film at the Central Library's "In Focus" film series.
The film begins at Noon and is free and open to the public. Go check it out!

Sister Wendy Beckett has become a sort of unlikely pop star. Although she spends most of her time in seclusion at a Monastery in Norfolk, England, she hosted a series of popular BBC documentaries on art history and appreciation. Here, she brings her infectious enthusiasm to a tour of a world- renowned museum right in our own backyard.

Sister Wendy at the Kimbell Art Museum
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

PHIL IN AMERICA: PART 1

This has been a busy and wonderful summer at Philbrook. Our summer exhibition, "To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum" has been beyond popular. We've had great crowds, marvelous programs and it's just been a very memorable experience for our guests and our staff.

But I have to be honest, I was exhausted. I needed to take a break and get away for a few days. So I decided to head out on road for that great American tradition, the road trip. My first stop was the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. From the giant badminton shuttlecocks on the lawn created by Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Brugen, to the wonderful paintings by the likes of Thomas Hart Benton and other regionalists, this is a must if you are ever in the area.

I am back on the road again headed to a new destination. Check back tomorrow for another great museum.

Here's a hint: Tomorrow's museum has wings designed by both I.M. Pei and Richard Meier.

- Phil Brooks

THE JOURNEY BEGINS...

This is Phil. Over the next 10 days, Phil will be taking a trip across America, visiting museums and other cultural hot spots.
The journey will be long, but he is up to the task. Phil will be checking in from the road, keeping us in the loop.

TONIGHT!

6:30 pm Patti Johnson Wilson Hall

A TALE OF TWO EGYPTOLOGISTS

The most famous Egyptologist of all time is arguably Howard Carter, the man responsible for uncovering the tomb of King Tut.
This was decades before the advent of television. The job of the Egyptologist has changed with time, technology and new revelations, but from Howard Carter all the way down to Dr. Kara Cooney, our guest for tomorrow's 3rd Thursday event, these people all carrying the same tool. Better than a brush or a computer or anything build or created, the passion that drives them to do this job, that is what binds them in history. And that is why we are so fascinated by them. These people live deliberately. And thank goodness for that.

IS EVERYTHING AN ADAPTATION?

THIS SATURDAY: Garden Talk/Winter Gardening

We will be having the next installment of our GARDEN TALK series this Saturday. Melinda McMillan, our Garden Manager, will talk about tips, ideas and strategies to help you have a smooth seasonal transition this year. Who says gardening in the winter can't be as fun as the rest of the year? If you join us and hear what Melinda has to say, you'll love gardening all year long.

SATURDAY

10:30 am

Charles P. Williams Conference Room

RED DIRT REPORT

We are always so thrilled when another blogger takes the time to visit and write about us.
Andrew Garfield of Red Dirt Report recently did just that. See what he has to say HERE.

YOU REVIEW: Rodin @ Philbrook

In our ongoing series YOU REVIEW, in which we ask people in the community to come in and review some aspect of the museum, we have invited Jasmine Ong to write about our Rodin pieces. Have a look at her interesting and unique take...

Tucked away in a small room on Philbrook’s first floor is an intimate exhibit of sculptures by late 19^th/ early 20^th century French artist Auguste Rodin. Viewing Rodin is usually an experience of grand scale—even when pieces aren’t grouped together in large number, individual works tend to loom large. This is definitely the case with Adam (1880), the massive bronze figure that greets visitors to the Philbrook in the entrance rotunda. More on him later. While Rodin’s unparalleled skill in rendering the human physique invites extended examination of a work of any size, these three relatively small pieces invite viewers to draw close.

First to catch the eye from its central position in the room is Eternal Springtime (1898), portraying in bronze a scene of wild abandon between a young man and woman. The flawlessly smooth surface of the figures contrasts sharply with the base upon which they rest. That contrast is a shared feature among the three works exhibited here, all on loan from the Kasser Art Foundation in Montclair, New Jersey. The young man’s left hand points toward the viewer, and its carefully articulated shape emerges provocatively from a section of rough material that functions as its support. The young woman’s hair flows down the back of the sculpture, at once blending with the base and deliberately rendered to stand out.

Nearby stands another rendering of two figures in close relationship, Young Mother in a Grotto (c. 1885), a scene in marble in which the viewer’s perspective as outsider is enforced by the mother’s body arching over her child, as if to shield him. Neither figure faces the viewer. Their gazes are locked on each other in a private moment of bonding. The child’s left foot, however, is the part of the piece closest to the viewer—it protrudes out of the grotto in an unselfconscious gesture of joy. It is also yet another reminder of Rodin’s extraordinary skill with the human body, especially feet and hands. The Head of St. John the Baptist (1889-1916), rendered in white marble, is presented just below eye level, presumably for optimal viewing but also giving the viewer a good idea of what it might have been like for Salome to receive the Baptist’s head on a platter as reward for her dance at her father King Herod’s birthday celebration. It’s an eerie and wonderful way to experience the work. The figure’s eyes are, mercifully, closed, but his lips are parted as if by a death rattle, and his features are, as always with Rodin, so carefully rendered—the deep ear canal and corners of the closed eyelids, the tensely furrowed brow. In the other two pieces in the room, tool-marked bases feature prominently. Here, the structural support is minimal. A large base isn’t necessary to support this piece, but its absence also helps not to disrupt the naturalistic feel of the exactly life-sized severed head.

After experiencing all this and the many other treasures Philbrook has to offer, Adam (also on loan from the Kasser Art Foundation) is still there in the rotunda to see you out of the museum. He’s a more familiar example of Rodin’s work—epic in scale, with a figure and base whose surfaces more closely resemble each other, creating a greater sense of unity among a larger work’s distinct elements. The figure twists around and leans his head on his shoulder, allowing Rodin’s deft articulation of human features to shine—the elaborate musculature of the turning abdomen, the skin of the left cheek gathering against the pressure of the shoulder. Viewing Adam is an apt prelude and coda not only to the smaller Rodin exhibit inside the museum, but to the experience of Philbrook as a whole.

CSI: EGYPT/Q&A Part 1

Our members will be getting a very special treat on Thursday, August 26th when we will host Dr. David R. Hunt of the Smithsonian Institution for a program called "CSI Smithsonian: Egypt". A noted forensic anthropologist, Dr. Hunt will discuss mummies and how they died in the first place. If you are a member, save the date. If not, we urge you to join so you can attend this and other great exclusive events.

1.) What has been your favorite mummy case? Why?

A case that was very interesting was a paleo-indian at the Nevada Archeological center (Carbon dates to 8000+ bp). I will not be able to show photographs of it of course, but when we were studying it, we did some initial radiographs of it and it appeared that the bones were somewaht jumbled inside of the warppings. So we though the body inside was more bones than mummy. After the careful removal of the netting and cloak wraps on the mummy and study of the body, that was, by the way, very well preserved, the head had been removed, the abdomen had been cut open, and the head that had been removed had been inserted up into the abdomen !! And the radius and ulan of the forearms had been removed on both sides...
Amazingly, working with the Egyptian mummies at Dashur, when they are removed from the surrounding matrix, when the linen wrappings are exposed to the open air, they begin to decay at an amazing rate, and actually are "smoldering" and will "burn" away (and destroy the mummy below as well) if not immediately treated to stop the oxidization.

2.) Besides Egypt, where are some of the unusual places that the
mummies you work on originate from?

Besides Egypt, I have worked with North Ameican Paleo-Indian, pre-historic and historic mummies, mummies from South America (Peru and Chile and shrunken heads from Brazil,Ecuador), Oceania, Mongolia, Alaska, Italy (Iceman); and then there are the historic "mummies" from iron coffins and adopocere preservation and in forensic settings where the body has been preserved by desiccation. How do you find out where they are from?

Research of the associating artifacts, radiometric dating, and metric skeletal analysis (usually done now by using 3D images from Computerized Tomographic investigation)

3.) What is the forensic process in which you find out how the mummy
died?/ What is the most important step?

Forensic really is only a term for investigation that has a legal component. So in most all investigations, it is a biological profile that you are acquiring by skeletal biological methods and techniques. Careful examination for evidence of trauma, disease and/or age may give the clues to the demise of the individual. All the different aspect of skeletal biological investigation are important in piecing together the "story" that is told by the tissues and the skeleton of the mummy.

4.) Why do we need to know how the mummies died?

I'm not sure that it is utimately important to know how the individual died, but it helps to understand howand why this individual was either found in the place that naturally preserved them, or better understanding of the cultural practices and other reasons why the individual was processed for preservation.

5.) Where did your fascination with mummies start?

From reading National Geographics and the encyclopaedia as a kid.

COMING SOON!!!

LAST DAY @ PHILBROOK : AN INTERN REFLECTS

Friday was my last day as an intern at Philbrook and I have mixed feelings about it.

I grew fond of the colleagues and the atmosphere. I did learn so much, from Greek mythology and Egypt over to Asian art, but it also gave me a good picture of American culture as a whole. A visit in Oklahoma can be so much more than going to rodeos, having BBQ and traveling down Route 66.

The best way to learn about a culture is living it. So after almost 2 months, some differences became obvious to me, like being called by the first name. I also like the optimism about everything. Here you don’t have any problems, you rather deal with challenges. Did you know that even the rabbits and the squirrels are more courageous in the US? I think this is pretty interesting.

Well, the biggest challenge I faced was neither a language barrier nor the cultural difference, but the weather: Tornadoes, humidity and extreme heat were breathtaking when I got off the plane. And it gets really bad when you are stuck on the turnpike without any air conditioner at noon. But adapting to the American way of thinking I tried to see the positive. Most impressive about this country is the neverending space. Did you know that Germany has 80 million people in a country about half the size of Texas?

Anyway, so how did I spend my last few days? I finally got to meet one of the Philbrook cats, Acer, in the garden. I joined the Tulsa Blogger Meet Up last Thursday and got to administrate the facebook account for a day. Besides that, I was busy with condition reports, translations of files and learning how to produce the videos we put online.

When I was taking my final walk through the galleries I realized that I have built up a really close relationship to some paintings. I think it is just amazing that there is a full story and a certain purpose behind every painting. There's just a peculiarly magical energy in the air. It felt like saying goodbye to my friends, but it is rather a “see you later” because I’m sure that this will not be my last visit to Philbrook.

Last but not least, I want to thank all those people working behind the scenes to enable my “Philbrook experience”. They earn my full respect for their engagement and hospitality. Thank you all so much for this great time!

MAD

You can't go anywhere these days without hearing about MAD MEN. Don Draper and his well-coiffed cronies are becoming ever-present fixtures in American popular culture. If you are one of these devotees, you must swing by and see our fabulous modern and contemporary design gallery featuring selections from the George R. Kravis II Collection.

But remember...no smoking in the galleries!

AUGUSTE IN AUGUST

We recently installed several Auguste Rodin sculptures in our European galleries on our lower level. These pieces, along with several others throughout the museum, are on loan from the Kasser foundation.
Come check them out!

LET THERE BE (BETTER) LIGHT

We recently updated the look and lighting in the Founders Room. This is ground zero for historical information about how we came to be. Wonderful images, detailed information. Stop by next time you're in and take a look.

5,000

We just signed up our 5,000th member, a goal that we couldn't have reached without our vital and large social media audience. There is a debate as to whether the people (You) out there on blogs, Facebook, Twitter and the rest can be interacted with in a real and authentic way, something that goes beyond the virtual online interactions. I think we can say with great assurance that you can. You did. We thank you.