THE CAUSE OF ART IS THE CAUSE OF THE PEOPLE Those words byWilliamMorris, inscribed in stone above the museum’s front entrance, exemplify our longstandingmission to bring the power of art to the greatest possible number of people. Your support for the museum continues this important tradition of connecting art and the public. Learn more at amam.oberlin.edu/support. CAN’T MAKE IT TO THE ALLEN? Search the entire collection online: amam.oberlin.edu/collection Take a deep dive into highlights from the collection with the Allen App: allen.stqry.app Visit the galleries, changing exhibitions, and the Frank LloydWright house virtually with Allen Augmented Reality: amam.oberlin.edu/aar DON’T MISS A THING Follow us @allenartmuseum Sign up for our e-newsletter: amam.oberlin.edu/e-news GROUP TOURS Free guided tours are available for adults and K–12 visitors. For information, please call 440-775-8166 or email education.amam@oberlin.edu. FROM THE DIRECTOR Often in this space, I’ve written about new exhibitions, programs, and projects that the Allen is undertaking; in many cases, these endeavors have highlighted new acquisitions to the collection. Now, I want to let you know about a recent loss from the collection: the 1911 drawing Girl with Black Hair, by Austrian artist Egon Schiele. You may have seen articles in the press last autumn about this; here, I can offer some context to Oberlin College’s decision to hand the drawing over to those who have posited that it is rightfully theirs, relatives of Fritz Grünbaum, a celebrated performer, writer, and director. Tragically, Grünbaum and his wife Lilly (Elisabeth), both Jewish residents of Vienna, were murdered in the Holocaust. The Allen purchased Girl with Black Hair in early 1958 fromGalerie St. Etienne in New York City; that gallery was run by Otto Kallir, a Jewish refugee who fled Austria in 1938, arriving in New York in 1939. The purchase was made pursuant to a decision by the museum’s Friends of Art group—our membership body, to which many of you reading this may belong— following a “purchase party,” an event at which donors vote on acquisitions. Charles Percy Parkhurst, the director of the Allen from 1949 to 1962, who authorized the drawing’s purchase, was a noted Monuments Man. He spent the latter part of WorldWar II and the period immediately following the war locating and inventorying thousands of artworks that had been looted by the Nazis, and as Deputy Chief of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) in Germany he coordinated restitution efforts at the Munich Central Collecting Point. In total, the MFAA located and returned more than five million looted artworks and items to their legitimate owners. In November 1945 he signed the Wiesbaden manifesto, rejecting the plunder and removal of cultural items as spoils of war, and in 1948 for his efforts in returning looted art he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur by the French government. It is inconceivable that Parkhurst would have purchased for the Allen any artwork that he believedmight have been looted. Galerie St. Etienne had purchased the drawing in late 1956 from the gallery Gutekunst & Klipstein in Bern, Switzerland. Records, including ledger books and correspondence, indicate that that gallery had bought it in early 1956 fromMathilde Lukacs, the sister of Lilly Grünbaum; Lukacs had fled Austria for Belgium in 1938 following the Nazi invasion. Exactly how Lukacs acquired the drawing is not clear; she exported artworks when she fled, and 87 North Main Street Oberlin, Ohio 44074 440-775-8665 amam.oberlin.edu Tue–Fri / 10 am–5 pm Sat / 1–5 pm Sun, Mon / Closed Always Free ON THE COVER / CONVERSATIONS-IN-PROGRESS Curators SamAdams and Marlise Brown pose with a newly-arrived acquisition in the Allen’s art storage. The artwork is part of a new installation in the King Sculpture Court that seeks to foster dialogue and illustrate connections between past and present. This space traditionally has showcased highlights from the Allen’s 19th-century American, Asian, and European collections, but now also includes contemporary works. These pairings explore such themes as American identity, Indigenous sovereignty, the natural world, manifest destiny, modernist depictions of space, and femininity and power. Throughout the museum, collaborative exhibitions and installations highlight collection diversity, embodying the Allen’s vision to be a creative catalyst for engagement and connection between people and art. Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band Choctaw/Cherokee, b. 1972), TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS, 2023. Acrylic paint on canvas inset in custom frame, acrylic velvet, acrylic felt, glass beads, turquoise, metal beads, vintage pinback button, vintage beaded elements, artificial sinew, nylon thread, cotton canvas, nylon and cotton rope. R. T. Miller Jr. Fund, 2023.58. Photo by John Seyfried.
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