Filling Up At The Philbrook - A Visit to Tulsa Oklahoma's Philbrook Museum
Filling Up At The Philbrook - A Visit to Tulsa, Oklahoma's Philbrook Museum
by a.d. elliott |Take the Back Roads – Art and Other Odd Facts
Dear Henry,
Right before Easter, I drove back to Arkansas to see some friends.
It was such a good visit. Since moving to Tulsa, I’ve felt more isolated than I expected, and I’ve missed my Arkansas friends terribly. Like many reunions after a hard season, I spent far too much time talking about how uncomfortable I’ve been since relocating, a habit I really should work on. No one enjoys constant complaining. But complaining, in this case, brought me the wisdom of the remarkable Mrs. R. M., and she rarely steers me wrong.
She told me I needed to go to the Philbrook Museum of Art.
The Philbrook is housed in Villa Philbrook, a three-story, seventy-two-room residence designed by Edward Buehler Delk and constructed in 1926 by the John Long Company. It was built as the private home of oilman Waite Phillips, his wife Genevieve, and their two children.
The house was designed in the style of an Italian Renaissance villa, though most of its materials were sourced in the United States. Set on twenty-five acres near downtown Tulsa, the estate includes formal terraced gardens designed by Hare and Hare, inspired by the Villa Lante gardens outside Rome, created in the sixteenth century by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. The house and grounds are breathtaking. I can’t quite imagine what daily life there must have felt like, though I suspect it may have been perpetually chilly, given the abundance of marble.
In 1938, after their children had left home, Waite and Genevieve Phillips donated Villa Philbrook, along with an endowment, to the city of Tulsa, with the hope that it would become an art museum. The gesture feels almost astonishing in its generosity.
Waite Phillips himself is a figure who deserves more attention. In 1922, he founded the Waite Phillips Petroleum Company, building it into a fully integrated refinery-to-service-station enterprise despite opportunities to join forces with his brothers, whose own company would become Phillips 66. Waite had his own vision, and he followed it.
In 1930, after the company became too large for him to oversee personally, Phillips sold it and turned almost entirely toward philanthropy. Donating Villa Philbrook was not a publicity stunt but a sincere civic offering. He also gave a vast New Mexico ranch to the Boy Scouts of America. I’ve added Beyond the Hills: The Journey of Waite Phillips by Michael Wallis to my reading list. His story feels as compelling as any modern tech legend's.
Art museums have always felt like sanctuaries to me: hushed, spacious places where the world softens. The Philbrook’s collection is particularly strong in works by Native American and American artists. I was especially drawn to the pottery collection and to several ancient sculptures, including an empty Egyptian sarcophagus dating to around 300 BC. No one knows whose it was, which somehow makes it even more evocative.
The museum also holds several Renaissance-era paintings. I was completely captivated by Vittore Carpaccio’s depiction of St. Stephen, especially the stone painted atop his head, a detail both brutal and serene.
Outside, the grounds rival the galleries. The terraced formal gardens were in bloom during my visit, filled with pink and nearly black tulips. I could easily imagine Genevieve Phillips stretched out there, reading and dreaming. I’m already looking forward to returning and watching the garden change with the seasons.
Two special exhibitions were on view while I was there. From the Limitations of Now draws inspiration from Ralph Ellison’s words: “We are able to free ourselves from the limitations of today.” The works are jarring and deliberate, reflecting the violence and upheaval of the Civil Rights era. I was particularly struck by Lonnie Holley’s They Never Saw Our Faces.
The second exhibition, Views of Greenwood, features black-and-white photographs of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, the site of the devastating 1921 racial massacre. The images, by photographers Don Thompson, Gaylord Oscar Herron, and Eyakem Gulilat, are quiet and devastating. They ask the viewer not to rush past history.
The Philbrook was exactly what I needed: a place to rest my mind and refill something I didn’t realize was empty. I’m already anticipating a return trip this summer to photograph the gardens, and I’m especially intrigued by the upcoming exhibition Dalí’s Alice in Wonderland, which will feature Salvador Dalí’s illustrations for the story. I’m curious to see how the museum handles the surreal.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
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