In the Mind of a Collector

January 14, 2020 – July 18, 2020

In the Mind of a Collector explored the inner workings of an art collector’s mind through a selection of 82 works from George R. Kravis II Collection, which was gifted to the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art in 2018.  A series of thematic sections mirror the progression of Kravis’s collecting interests: It Started Here; Radio Days; Pop Goes the Art; The Art of Architecture; and A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That. Beginning with the purchase of a 45-rpm record player at the age of twelve, Kravis’s passion grew from initial acquisitions of fine art for his home to a strategic pursuit that became a nationally recognized collection.

Selections range from the colorful, energized brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann to the comic-book-inspired Pop Art of Roy Lichtenstein and from a 1950s Frank Lloyd Wright chair to Streamline Style radios from the 1930s and 1940s. The Tulsa-based businessman was one of the earliest and youngest founders of an FM radio station in the United States, KRAV, and went on to become a philanthropist focusing on art education.

VIRTUAL TOUR