Closed Summer 2024

Beginning May 27, we will be closed as part of Oberlin College’s Sustainable Infrastructure Program.

Learn More

Address
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College
87 North Main Street, Oberlin, OH 44074
440.775.8665

Hours

Tuesday — Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Monday, Sunday Closed
Open until 5:00 p.m. & always free

Exhibitions & Events

The Allen presents changing exhibitions along with engaging guest speakers and public programs.

Learn More

Art at the AMAM

The Allen's collection is particularly strong in 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting, Japanese prints, early modern art, African art, and more.

Learn More

Collections

Conservation

Provenance Research

Image Licensing

Art Donations

Learn

Explore the full range of museum programs through free events, guided and self-guided tours, and resources for professors and PreK-12 teachers.

Learn More

Resources

Find podcasts, activities, and information for all age groups.

View All Resources

Join & Support

Support for the museum continues our tradition of bringing art to the people.

Learn More

A Different Kind of Picture: Pinhole Photography by Adam Fuss

July 24 - December 23, 2018
In Education Hallway

A Different Kind of Picture: Pinhole Photography by Adam Fuss

July 24 - December 23, 2018
In Education Hallway

Adam Fuss moved to New York in 1982 and took a job as a waiter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where catering evening events allowed him to spend time in the galleries, completely alone. Fuss became particularly fascinated with the Greek and Roman sculptures and how, “at night, they’d come alive.” Already a photographer experimenting with alternative photography methods, he found that using a pinhole camera in the deserted galleries resulted in images that came close to capturing the essence of the statues. The images disrupted habitual ways of seeing and opened a space where the works could, in his words, “breathe.”

A Different Kind of Picture: Pinhole Photography by Adam Fuss brings together Fuss’s pinhole photographs taken at the Met and elsewhere. Representing classical sculpture from three different museums, this selection, like Fuss’s artistic practice, overrides the curatorial authority of these institutions and presents familiar iconographies in an unexpected, intimate way. The exhibition places Fuss in dialogue with the recent widespread acceptance that ancient sculptures would have been polychromed, or covered in pigment and gilding.

Contemporary attention to this practice compels modern viewers to recognize that the white marble forms we see today would have represented a variety of skin tones in their original context. The imperative to see these sculptures in color dovetails with Fuss’s desire to give new life and immediacy to his ancient subjects, thus creating “a different kind of picture.”

This exhibition is organized by Liliana Milkova, Curator of Academic Programs, and Olivia Fountain (OC ’17), 2017–18 Curatorial Assistant for Academic Programs.

Organized by

Liliana Milkova

Curator of Academic Programs

Olivia Fountain '17

2017-18 Curatorial Assistant for Academic Programs

Memberships

Support appreciation for original works of art by becoming a museum member.

Join Today