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Virtual Tour

Protest, rebellion, war: art, in some form, is often bound up in these – even as the process of art-making is periodically transformed by revolutionary ideas and changing movements. What were once radically modern styles give way to newer ones, as artists continue to engage with the world, take inspiration from its pleasures and traumas, and confront society’s ills while observing our shared humanity.

This exhibition of works spanning 1882 to 2021 from the museum’s collection serves as a complement to Bakunin’s Barricade, with its themes of protest and revolution, and to the overall FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, whose 2022 iteration embraces art as a mode of healing. Whether as a call to action or a balm to pain, a means of commemoration or a celebration of courage, art has agency and power. Some of the works on view here are radical in the artists’ rejection of prevailing styles, and forging of new paths. Many take up the subjects of war, displacement, civil and human rights, and mental health – several simultaneously pointing toward remembrance, repose, and resolution.