Patrick Gordon is surrounded by his paintings, and he can’t stop smiling.
“Isn’t this great?” he asks.
Gordon is standing in the third of seven spaces showcasing more than 50 of his paintings that comprise “Wall Flowers,” his first-ever museum retrospective at Philbrook Museum of Art.
He’s come a long way from the 12-year-old Claremore boy who sold his first painting for $60 and then, a few years later, opened his first gallery, Strawberry Fields. In the decades since, his works have ranged from watercolor to his recent huge, saturated florals. Examples can be seen at the Philbrook along with portraits, still lifes and a selection of his lesser-known politically engaged works.
To watch Gordon admire his artwork on the Philbrook walls and giggle as he does it, it’s clear he’s enjoying taking it all in.
“I feel really fortunate that they wanted to do this, and now that it’s up, I’m just a little overwhelmed by seeing it all,” says the 71-year-old. “I just live with this stuff and when you take them from a different setting and put them into a curated space, all of a sudden they look different. They look like somebody else did them, but I am familiar with what he did. So it’s fascinating.”
Gordon spoke to the Flyer while walking through his exhibit to discuss his life’s work on display through Jan. 3.
How does it feel to be walking through these spaces seeing all your artwork from over the years?
Well, each room I go in, I’m like, ‘Oh, they saw what I was doing. They understood what I was making and they found a way to put it all together.’ I think (curator) Susan (Green) has done an incredible job in making it.
Did you have any say in the paintings that are on display?
Susan chose all the work for the show. I didn’t have anything to do with it, except for one painting that I thought they overlooked that I wanted in here, so I got it in. I think it was worth it, and I hope it makes everybody laugh because art is supposed to also make you feel good, make you smile, make you happy.
I believe in having fun with the viewer. All of my art has little secret things hidden in them. If you look long enough, you might see them. If you don’t see them, it’s OK. You’re still going to enjoy the painting. But it’s fun to kind of throw out a little hidden easter egg in a painting. That keeps me amused while I sit there and spend eight weeks painting. You got to find something to keep you happy with it because you’re going to be intimate with these paintings by the time you get through with them.
Seeing how the curator has arranged your paintings, does it give you a different perspective on your work?
What it does is it makes me realize that I’ve been working really hard for a long time. I primarily work on one painting at a time, and I don’t think about it in a serial form or as an en masse exhibition. Like the painting of potatoes and onions. When I made that painting, I thought I was going to do a whole vegetable series. Well, I didn’t. I just did this one painting, but I couldn’t wait to get on to the next one, because the next one led me to this one. So it’s a remarkable process for me how one follows on to the next.
What do you hope people who come through the show take away from spending time with your career-spanning art?
Well, I hope they find joy and peace and interest in the paintings. I make them so people can see the world as I see it. I know this isn’t terribly realistic in some parts of the world, but these are the things that I see and that I think need to be recorded. It’s my judgment. I’ve been off. My judgment has been wrong on a couple of things, but when it comes to painting, I’m pretty true to it, and it’s true to me.
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