FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
(TULSA, OK. June 24, 2026) Philbrook is pleased to announce the special exhibition Roadside Abstractions: Route 66 & American Modernism. The exhibition runs July 29, 2026-January 3, 2027.
From the 1920s through the 1970s, Route 66 carried Americans across a changing country. It became the passage by which ordinary Americans experienced the vast drama and color of the American landscape. Major sociopolitical events like the Great Depression and World War II altered how people experienced their world. As the physical and political landscape changed in the U.S, the landscape of the artworld was also evolving. Roadside Abstractions traces a parallel journey of the artists who paved the way for American painting and sculpture to leave realism behind and explore new methods of artmaking.
Key landmarks along the exhibition route will include works by quintessential American artists Georgia O’Keeffe, Grace Hartigan, Morris Louis, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Barkley Hendricks, and Kay Walkingstick, among nearly 50 others. The exhibition will also present, for the first time at Philbrook, three major new acquisitions: an ethereal and meditative Color Field painting by Vivian Springford, a gestural oil on canvas by Abstract Expressionist Mary Abbott, and a monumental felt sculpture by Minimalist Robert Morris.
“Not only are the Museum’s recent acquisitions stellar examples of American Modernism to include in this exhibition, but they are also critical works for our permanent collection. We can now share a more complete version of art history with our audience. It’s especially exciting to present paintings by Vivian Springford and Mary Abbott, critical figures in American abstraction who were somewhat overlooked until the last decade,” said Philbrook President & CEO Megan Whittaker Nesbit. Nesbit co-curated the exhibition alongside Deputy Director Rachel Keith and Curator of Learning & Interpretation Jenny Fisher.
Alongside these new acquisitions and others from Philbrook’s permanent collection, the exhibition presents works on loan from prestigious collections, including the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, Tia Collection, and the Art Bridges Collection.
As the exhibition travels through significant movements in American art, from Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting, Minimalism and beyond, it maps parallels in the changing American landscape: what was happening along Route 66 at the time these works were created?
The open road didn’t just carry a generation of Americans west. It carried American art into abstraction and beyond. Roadside Abstractions is a must-see stop for any Route 66 Centennial itinerary.
