With an impressive collection permanently on view and new exhibitions opening every semester, the Allen Memorial Art Museum is considered one of the best academic museums in the country. This semester, we have eight exhibitions on view through the summer. Visit amam.oberlin.edu for associated events and more details.

Like a Good Armchair: Getting Uncomfortable with Modern and Contemporary Art

In 1908, the painter Henri Matisse wrote that art should offer “a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” Yet, as the twentieth century progressed through world wars, decolonization, and social upheaval, one of the major contributions of vanguard art has been its ability to challenge viewers to question their assumptions and routines. Although sitting may seem like an ordinary act, it also expresses privilege and identity—from royal court etiquette to Civil Rights sit-ins, disability activism, and manspreading. This exhibition highlights works from the Allen’s collection—not in a linear survey, but in an examination of the racial, ableist, gendered, classist, and ageist politics of who gets to sit, when, and how.

Developed in conversation with current Oberlin students and faculty, Like a Good Armchair invites visitors to move beyond the passivity in Matisse’s claim that art should offer relaxation, and instead investigates the generative thoughts and feelings evoked by the experience of discomfort.

Organized by Sam Adams, Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with Fudi Fickenscher (OC 2023).

Riding the Strong Currents: 20th and 21st Century Chinese Paintings from the AMAM Collection

The past century has been a turbulent one for people in China, as they have confronted the challenges of Western and Japanese imperialism, civil war, revolution and its aftermath, and, since the 1980s, the experiences of reform, stability, and economic success. Riding the currents on a rushing river seems to be a good metaphor for this period, one taken from an inscription by painter Huáng Bīnhóng (1864–1955). This exhibition brings together works by Huáng and many other Chinese painters who navigated the volatile currents of twentieth- and early twenty-first-century history and reflected in their art the dynamic character of the times. Made up of works in the Allen’s permanent collection of modern and contemporary Chinese painting (begun in 1957), the exhibition includes familiar favorites and new acquisitions, many shown here publicly for the first time. Riding the Strong Currents presents a wide range of subjects and styles that demonstrate the creativity and diversity of this most recent phase of Chinese painting, a tradition extending back over two millennia.

Organized by Kevin R. E. Greenwood, Joan L. Danforth Curator of Asian Art, with contributions from Mengchen Xu (OC 2016), Zimeng Xiang (OC 2018), Milin Zhou (OC 2019), Jingyi Yuan (OC 2021), and Kai Li, Oberlin College senior instructor in Chinese. Special thanks to the Shih-Yan Wu Family and Driek (OC 1965) and Michael (OC 1964) Zirinsky.

The Language of the Streets

Last fall, Michelangelo Lovelace’s These Urban City Streets sparked conversations about place and belonging through its honest and loving depiction of inner-city Cleveland. In Lovelace’s painting, vibrant signage animates streets full of faceless people, bringing them to life through the energy of the text.

This exhibition responds to Lovelace by looking at how we engage with the words that surround us, whether that be advertising copy created for commercial gain or emotion-based human language. Four artworks by David Drebin, Walker Evans, Jenny Holzer, and Ernest C. Withers help us become aware of the conversations happening silently around us through the language of the streets.

Organized by Julia Alexander (OC 2022), curatorial assistant in academic programs.

Recent Acquisitions: Stephanie Syjuco

Stephanie Syjuco is a multimedia artist whose work often examines and challenges standard narratives of history and the legacies of empire. Her art is bold and inventive, energized by sharp insight and sly wit. Syjuco has worked in diverse forms and mediums, including photography, sculpture, textiles, social practice, and installation.

Organized by Kevin R. E. Greenwood, Joan L. Danforth Curator of Asian Art, with special thanks to Driek (OC 1965) and Michael (OC 1964) Zirinsky.

Where is Consent in Art (Museums)?

Does beholding an image of desire or sexual violence implicate us in that image’s power dynamics? When a figure looks directly at us—as if to acknowledge our presence—how do we look back?

In this experimental installation, we explore the ethics of presenting images of power and sexuality. In doing so, we acknowledge the harm that images can cause when we obscure sexual violence with terms like “amorous” or prioritize symbolic meaning and artistic style. Artworks are not passive—they reflect and impact our lived experiences and contribute to our shared values.

Organized by Hannah Wirta Kinney, curator of academic programs and Sam Adams, Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Femme ’n isms, Part I: Bodies Are Fluid

Bodies Are Fluid is the first in a series of exhibitions over the coming semesters that celebrates women, femmes, and the feminine at the Allen Memorial Art Museum. Like most art collections, the Allen’s formed around deceptively-neat categories that are both art historical—realism, impressionism, abstract expressionism—and based on social groups and identities—man/woman, religious/secular, young/old, fat/skinny. This intergenerational constellation of artworks presents a capacious spectrum of individuals and experiences that the “isms” of art have long failed to grasp.

Organized by Sam Adams, Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with Fudi Fickenscher (OC 2023).

Between Page and Picture: History and Myth in the Persian Book of Kings

The Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, is an epic written by the Persian poet Albo’l-Qasem Ferdowsi (940–ca. 1025). A partly-historical and partly-mythical tale, the Shahnameh was written to preserve the historical imprint of the ancient glory and vast influence of the civilization of Persia (today’s Iran). The text follows the creation of the world and the first man, to the rise and fall of the Persian Empire, to the subsequent Muslim conquest of Greater Iran in the early seventh century.

A few hundred years after the Shahnameh was written, artists and calligraphers began to produce beautifully-illustrated and -written versions of the text. This exhibition presents examples of illustrated Shahnameh pages from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, along with contemporary works by the Iranian-American artist Ala Ebtekar, whose work draws from this tradition.

Organized by Roya Ahmadi-Moghadam (OC 2023) and Kevin R. E. Greenwood, Joan L. Danforth Curator of Asian Art, with special thanks to Selin Ünlüönen, Oberlin College Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Art History, and Driek (OC 1965) and Michael (OC 1964) Zirinsky.

Figural Representation in Islamic Art

Does Islam forbid making images of people? Various Muslim societies have interpreted the religion’s prohibition of idolatry—specifically worship of statues—in different ways. Despite this rich variety, some widespread customs in representation have developed over time. Mosque decoration, for example, is often without human figures and includes vegetal, stylized, or geometric designs. On the other hand, traditional book illustrations often depicted people. This exhibition showcases different types of representation in Islamic art and includes textiles, prints, and works by contemporary artists Shirin Neshat and Burhan Doğançay.

Organized by Selin Ünlüönen, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Art History in the field of Islamic art, architecture, and material culture, with Kevin R. E. Greenwood, Joan L. Danforth Curator of Asian Art.

ALLEN MEMORIAL ART MUSEUM
87 North Main Street
Oberlin Ohio 44074
amam.oberlin.edu
440.775.8665
Open 1-5pm Sunday, closed Monday, open 10am-5pm Tuesday–Saturday. Always free

EVENTS:

Femme ’n isms, Part I: Bodies Are Fluid, through August 6

Between Page and Picture: History and Myth in the Persian Book of Kings, through August 6

Figural Representation in Islamic Art, through August 6

Like a Good Armchair: Getting Uncomfortable with Modern and Contemporary Art, through July 16

Riding the Strong Currents: 20th and 21st Century Chinese Paintings from the AMAM Collection, through June 11

The Language of the Streets, through August 20

Recent Acquisitions: Stephanie Syjuco, through August 22

Where is Consent in Art (Museums)?, through August 22