Charles Banks Wilson is one of Oklahoma’s most beloved and accomplished artists. Known for his portraits and murals honoring great Oklahomans and Oklahoma history, and for his career-spanning series of portraits of Native Americans, his place in the history of American art is assured. This stunning book, featuring nearly two hundred reproductions of his works, celebrates both his life story and his artistic legacy.
As demonstrated in this book, Wilson’s work is characterized both by technical expertise and aesthetic genius. But his place in the hearts of Americans and in the company of such great regionalists as Thomas Hart Benton is secured by his eye for the everyday truths of humbler subjects: for example, boys leaping into a swimming hole or cooks stirring the bean pot at a powwow. His work ranges widely across media; he is equally skilled in pencil, ink, watercolor, and oil, and he is a master lithographer. 
The contributors to this book reveal Wilson’s devotion to American heartland life through detailed analysis of his works, many from the Gilcrease Collection, created over nearly seven decades of the artist’s life. Focusing on Wilson’s life as well as his art, the contributors make a special effort to convey his artistic philosophy through his own words. As a result, this remarkable volume offers unprecedented access to the man and his work.

Charles Banks Wilson

Arts & Photography

Morand, Anne

Haralson, Carol

Ramer, Randy

Klein, Carole

Individual Artists

Gilcrease Museum

As a boy growing up in eastern Oklahoma, Willard Stone spent much of his free time drawing. Admiring the work of Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, he dreamed of becoming a painter. When he was thirteen, a dynamite cap he was holding exploded and he lost segments of two fingers and the thumb of his right hand. Deeply affected, he withdrew, thinking he would never become the artist he hoped to be.
But Stone’s deep desire to create motivated him to rise above his disability. He began shaping little animal figures using the wet clay from the ditches near his home. Eventually he discovered that the medium of wood appealed to him more, and he adapted carving tools to fit his injured hand. He was transformed by his love of wood and his desire to shape it.
This lavishly illustrated volume presents the life and work of woodcarver Willard Stone. Four authors, including staff of the Gilcrease Museum and one of Stone’s grandsons, provide insight into the artist’s biography, his carving techniques, his sources of inspiration, and his legacy as an Oklahoma artist. These essays and more than 200 full-color and black-and-white photographs of Stone’s pieces follow the grain of a human life, visible in sublimely carved wood.
Stone’s sculptures exhibit his love of nature, representing fertility, birth, regeneration, and the seasons while reflecting his deep understanding of the balance of nature. His masterful use of the wood grain, an integral element in his carvings, demonstrates his thoughtfulness in the planning stages of the artistic process. Referring to himself as a “folklorist in wood,” Stone carved his philosophy of life into his works, creating stories that glowed with universal truths and resonated with his own personality. In addition to his ability to create beautiful forms, it is his gift of storytelling that lends the carvings of Willard Stone their profound mark of distinction.

Willard Stone

Roblin, Kimberly

Hansen, Regan

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