Pierson Gallery: American Fine Art

    Few other artists have become so identified with their state as Oklahoma's Charles Banks Wilson. Painter, printmaker, magazine and book illustrator, teacher, lecturer and historian, his work has been shown in over 200 exhibitions in this country and throughout the world. The permanent collections of major museums and galleries contain his paintings and prints of Oklahoma life. These include New York's Metropolitan and Washington's Library of Congress, Corcoran Gallery and the Smithsonian. Oklahoma school children studied from history text containing some 50 of his drawings.

    Author and editor of the books "The Indian Tribes of Eastern Oklahoma", and "The Search for the Purebloods", he is also the illustrator of 25 books. These include such prize winning books as the classic "Treasure Island", "Company Of Adventures", "Henry's Lincoln", and the late J. Frank Dobie's personal favorite "The Mustangs".

    Writers have said the paintings by Charles Banks Wilson breathe the spirit of the Southwest. It can also be said, his mural "The Trappers Bride" in the Jackson Lake Lodge, Wyoming, commissioned by the late John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1955, ranks among the finest records of the American West fur trade.

    Besides the Oklahoma Press Association's portrait of Will Rogers, Wilson also did the life portrait of Thomas Gilcrease who established Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum. (This museum owns the largest collection of Wilson's paintings and lithographs.) His famous sitters include U.S. House Speaker, Carl Albert, whose portrait is the first to hang in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C., prior to permanent installation in the U.S. Capitol Speaker's Gallery. Four mural sized portraits of Will Rogers, Sequoyah, Cherokee Native American, U.S. Senator Robert S. Kerr, and the athlete, Jim Thorpe, along with 4 historic murals measuring 110 feet, are viewed annually by one million visitors to the Oklahoma State Capitol rotunda. The Oklahoma painter is best known for his pictures of contemporary Indian life, a project which has engaged him since the early 1930's. The "Ten Little Indians" portfolio has been reproduced in literally every country in the world.

    Honored by the U.S. State Department as well as the International Institute of Arts and Letters in Geneva, Charles Banks Wilson received the first Governor's Art Award and the D.S.C. from the University of Oklahoma, is a member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and recipient of the Western Heritage award from the Cowboy Hall of Fame.

    Mr. Wilson created the designs for "The First Americans Series", Basalt medallions depicting famous Indian Chiefs, produced by Josiah Wedgewood and Sons, Inc., England.