Beginning May 27, we will be closed as part of Oberlin College’s Sustainable Infrastructure Program.
Closed Summer 2024
Beginning May 27, we will be closed as part of Oberlin College’s Sustainable Infrastructure Program.
The Allen presents changing exhibitions along with engaging guest speakers and public programs.
Learn MoreThe Allen's collection is particularly strong in 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting, Japanese prints, early modern art, African art, and more.
Learn MoreExplore the full range of museum programs through free events, guided and self-guided tours, and resources for professors and PreK-12 teachers.
Learn MoreResources
Find podcasts, activities, and information for all age groups.
Support for the museum continues our tradition of bringing art to the people.
Learn MoreFebruary 6 - July 20, 2014
In West Ambulatory
February 6 - July 20, 2014
In West Ambulatory
This exhibition reveals the influence of Socialist Realism, the only officially condoned style for artists in the Soviet Union and many of its satellite states, on two contemporary artists: Bulgarian-born Christo and East Germany-born Gerhard Richter. In their twenties, both fled their home countries behind the Iron Curtain in search of artistic freedom in the West. Both artists also rose to world fame, in part due to their rigorous training in Socialist Realist methods.
Other artists, such as Yugoslavian Marko Spalatin, Albanian Anri Sala, and American Tom Zetterstrom, view Socialist reality from without, as outsiders looking in. Their works comment on the restrictive artistic and social conditions imposed by totalitarian control, or the bleak post-Socialist world, divested of the idealized semblance that the official visual rhetoric projected round the clock.
Based on a snapshot Richter took on the Canary Islands in 1969, Seelandschaft iterates a key Socialist Realist trope—the prominent inclusion of the horizon line in official paintings and photographs—that symbolizes the utopian future to which all Socialist societies had aspired. The golden, almost apocalyptic glow of the sky, however, forecasts an impending cataclysm, not an earthly paradise.
This exhibition was organized by Curator of Academic Programs Liliana Milkova.
Curator of Academic Programs
Visit - Tours
Enjoy the intimacy of one of the nation's best academic art museums. Free admission since 1917.
Newsletter
Sign up for our e-newsletter to get information about our free events and latest exhibitions.
Join & Support
Your support makes a difference. Become a museum member, donor, or volunteer.