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Internationally known Oklahoma artist Alexandra Alaupovic dies at 91

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Internationally known artist Alexandra Alaupovic, a longtime Oklahoma City resident whose work is included in the Oklahoma State Art Collection, died Wednesday. She was 91.

She was born Dec. 21, 1921, in Podravska Slatina, Croatia, to Elizabeta and Joseph Vrbanic.

She entered the Academy of Visual Arts in Zagreb in 1944.

In the late 1950s, Alaupovic came to the United States with her husband, Petar, a research scientist, when he got a job at the University of Illinois.

In 1960, the couple moved so her husband could take a job with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, where he celebrated his 50th anniversary in early 2011.

Alaupovic enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, where she learned welding, won the 1964 Oscar Jacobson Award for her sculpture “Moon Girl” and earned her master of fine arts degree. She started her teaching career at OU, then spent several years as an art professor at Oklahoma City University.

In 1964, she and her husband became U.S. citizens in a ceremony in downtown Oklahoma City.

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