24" x 36" four-color process with spot varnish on the 20 images, lithographed on 80-pound Lustro Dull Cover stock

Retail price: Twenty-five dollars, plus shipping.

Dealer inquiries are welcome. Contact the photographer (David Halpern)

at: (918) 742-8978

or e-mail:

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Tulsa was a young and booming city in the 1920s and 1930s - Oklahoma emerged as the nation's leading oil-producing state, and Tulsa was being called the "Oil Capital of the World." While the architectural models for the city's new buildings were often the Gothic Revival structures of eastern cities, a brash new architectural approach was gaining attention across the country. Fed by a disparate collection of sources ranging from the discovery of King Tut's tomb to principles of aerodynamics, this "new architecture" expressed prosperity both literally, through the technology of new materials and structural advances, and symbolically through it's ornamental imagery. It would not be called Art Deco for another three decades, but Tulsa embraced the style to characterize it's own modernity.

In 1980, the Junior League of Tulsa published the book, "Tulsa Art Deco, an Architectural Era, 1925-1942" and David Halpern was selected to make the contemporary photographs for the publication. A popular and critical success, the first edition was soon out of print, though the demand for it continued. Copies found in used book stores often were sold for $350 or more.

In 2001, thanks to the efforts of the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, a fully revised edition of that book was published and is now available in book stores, via the internet and directly from the Foundation. The new book is larger and more colorful and includes some buildings overlooked in the original version. Thanks to technological advances in printing and photography, the color is more vibrant and most of the images that appeared in black and white in the 1980 publication have been replaced with full color versions.

The Art Deco poster shown above (captioned: "ART DECO, Alive in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is a bit of a "teaser" for the new book, featuring details from twenty of the newly enhanced images, and representing some of Tulsa's most treasured works, including the Boston Avenue Methodist Church (Bruce Goff/Adah Robinson), Christ the King Catholic Church (Francis Barry Byrne), The Philcade Building (Leon B. Senter), The Gillette-Tyrrell Building (Edwin W. Saunders), The Tulsa Fire Alarm Building (Frederick V. Kershner), The Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion (L. I. Shumway), City Veterinary Clinic (Joseph R. Koberling, Jr.), Riverside Studio (Bruce Goff)The Southwestern Bell Main Dial Building (I. R. Timlin), and others.

The Poster is currently available through Joseph Gierek Fine Art, Ltd. in Tulsa, the gift shop of the Philbrook Museum of Art, Boston Avenue Frames, Grant's Frames and David Frames, and Boston Avenue Methodist Church. This list is growing and a current update is available by sending an e-mail to:

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