Through August 29, 2010
Founded in 1917, the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College is one of the finest college or university collections in the United States, serving as an invaluable educational resource for aspiring art scholars. While the museum is closed in 2010 for renovations, 20 of their masterpieces—19 paintings and one sculpture—are on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for five months in the special exhibition Side by Side: Oberlin's Masterworks at the Met. These include the great Ter Brugghen painting Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene (one of the most important North Baroque paintings in the U.S.), Cézanne's Viaduct at l'Estaque, Kirchner's Self-Portrait as a Soldier, and a striking Kirchner sculpture. Each of these works is integrated into the Metropolitan Museum's excellent collection, creating new, provocative juxtapositions.
The paintings are in various galleries in the Metropolitan Museum's European Paintings Galleries, 19th– and Early 20th–Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries, and Modern and Contemporary Galleries, alongside corresponding works. The Metropolitan Museum is fortunate to have this occasion to display many of its major paintings with the Allen Memorial Art Museum's splendid pieces by artists as varied as Altdorfer, Ter Brugghen, Turner, Monet, Cézanne, Kirchner, and Rothko. This exhibition provides visitors to the Museum with a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Oberlin College's rich collection and see their works in a different environment.
Side by Side: Oberlin's Masterworks at the Met includes pairings such as the Allen Memorial Art Museum's early 16th–century painting The Fountain of Life with the Metropolitan's The Crucifixion and The Last Judgment by Van Eyck; AMAM's Ter Brugghen painting Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene with the Metropolitan's The Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John by Ter Brugghen; the AMAM's Self-Portrait by Michiel Sweerts displayed near the Metropolitan's Man Holding a Jug by Sweerts; and the AMAM's Monet painting Garden of the Princess, Louvre (Le Jardin de l'Infante) hung in the same gallery with the Metropolitan's Monet canvas Garden at Sainte-Adresse, both from 1867.
Comprising nearly 14,000 works of art from cultures around the world and spanning the history of art, the Allen Memorial Art Museum's collection is a vital cultural resource for the students, faculty, and staff of Oberlin College as well as the surrounding community. The current building renovation and endowment effort will ensure that the museum continues to provide deep educational and aesthetic experiences for Oberlin College faculty and students and the public.
The exhibition is organized at the Metropolitan Museum by Maryan Ainsworth, Curator in the Department of European Paintings, and an Oberlin College alumna, with Andria Derstine, Allen Memorial Art Museum Curator of European and American Art, and Stephanie Wiles, Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum. Following the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, a collection of works from the Allen Memorial Art Museum will be on view at the Phillips Collection in Washington from September 11, 2010, through January 16, 2011.
A special brochure about the works with maps of where to find them in the Metropolitan Museum's galleries accompanies the exhibition.
The exhibition includes a series of gallery talks by prominent Oberlin alumni and other scholars. A podcast series is also available at the Allen Memorial Art Museum's website at www.oberlin.edu/amam/AMAMatMet.
The exhibition is featured on the Metropolitan Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org.
Following is a full list of the works from the Allen Memorial Art Museum on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Spanish
The Fountain of Life (Fuente de la Vida) , 16th century
Erhard Altdorfer, German, 1480/85–1561/62
St. Mary Magdalen Raising a Dead Knight for Confession, 1519
Erhard Altdorfer, German, 1480/85 – 1561/62
St. Mary Magdalen Raising the Wife of the Prince of Marseilles, 1519
Herri met de Bles, Flemish, c. 1510–before 1572
Landscape with the Conversion of Saul on the Road to Damascus, c. 1545
Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri), Italian, 1581–1641
Landscape with Flight into Egypt, c. 1605
Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari), Italian, 1568–1640
The Agony in the Garden (Christ on the Mount of Olives) , 1597/98
Hendrick ter Brugghen, Dutch, c. 1588–1629
Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene, 1625
Pier Francesco Mola, Italian, 1612–1666
Mercury Putting Argus to Sleep, 1645–1655
Michiel Sweerts, Flemish, 1618–1664
Self-Portrait, c. 1656
Giovanni Battista Gaulli (called Il Baciccio), Italian, 1639–1709
Death of Adonis, 1683–1685
Joseph Wright of Derby, English, 1734–1797
Dovedale by Moonlight, 1784– 1785
Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775–1851
View of Venice, The Ducal Palace, Dogana and Part of San Giorgio, 1841
Claude Monet, French, 1840–1926
Garden of the Princess, Louvre (Le Jardin de l'Infante) , 1867
Paul Cézanne, French, 1839–1906
Viaduct at L'Estaque (Le Viaduct a l'Estaque) , 1882
Henri Edmond Cross, French, 1856–1910
The Return of the Fisherman (Le Pêcheur Provençal) , 1896
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German, 1880–1938
Self-Portrait as a Soldier, 1915
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German, 1880–1938
Standing Female Nude, 1919
Mark Rothko, American, 1903–1970
The Syrian Bull, 1943
Adolph Gottlieb, American, 1903–1974
The Rape of Persephone, 1943
Barnett Newman, American, 1905–1970
Onement IV, 1949
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March 15, 2010