AT THE ALLEN / FALL 2024 / 13 HIGHLIGHT / COLLECTION PRACTICES NEW ACQUISITIONS SHOWCASE BLACK CULTURE AND CHALLENGE HISTORICAL NARRATIVES Among the latest additions to the museum’s collection are Portrait of Two Girls, the earliest-known interracial American portrait in which the sitters are depicted as equal, and Roberto Lugo’s Harriet Tubman Jug, a powerful tribute to the iconic abolitionist. These artworks not only enrich the museum’s collection but also support its mission to inspire curiosity and connection for the broadest audience possible. Painted roughly four decades prior to the end of the Civil War, the Allen’s recent acquisition, Portrait of Two Girls depicts an interracial pair of sitters as equals. The girls’ body language and the symbolism of their coordinating attire communicate their closeness and familiarity— suggesting that the hierarchical and racial boundaries typical in 19th-century America do not apply here. One girl holds open a chapbook of the popular fairytale Cinderella. This narrative about shifting social status and the triumph of good over evil may mirror the backstory of this portrait, namely themes of sisterhood or stepsisterhood, temporary enslavement, and the rightful restoration of the main protagonist through the guise of dress, altered perception, and even magic. In another new acquisition, Roberto Lugo pays homage to one of the most pivotal figures in the fight for emancipation in his 2022 ceramic work, Harriet Tubman Jug. Lugo based its size and shape on a jug made in 1885 to commemorate a British army officer, instead honoring a figure from the same period whose contributions to American history were long overlooked. Lugo made this work amid debates about replacing Andrew Jackson’s face with that of Harriet Tubman on the 20-dollar bill. Lugo states, “I feel like Black people and Hispanic people are now part of the conversation. I have the autonomy to choose who gets to be put on this pot and who gets to be used as a muse.” While the acquisition of these artworks does not make a museum anti-racist, they better position us to develop programs and exhibitions that contribute to the longtermwork of dismantling white supremacy. Left: American, Portrait of Two Girls, ca. 1825–30. Oil on canvas. R. T. Miller Jr. Fund, MuseumFriends Fund, Oberlin Friends of Art Fund, Art Object Sales Fund, Richard Lee Ripin Art Purchase Fund, Hedy Landman ’53 Memorial Art Fund, and Goodman American Art Fund, 2024.10. Right: Roberto Lugo (American, b. 1981), Harriet Tubman Jug, 2022. Glazed stoneware, enamel paint, and luster. Hedy Landman (OC 1953) Memorial Art Fund, 2023.48.
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