ON VIEW / EAST GALLERY / ONGOING YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (OUT OF) As the only space in the museumwhere all artwork is displayed behind glass, the East Gallery is used for receptions and a monthly “Tuesday Tea” series. Two newly installed display cases build on these themes of leisure and consumption, while also highlighting the artistic legacies of Surrealism and Pop Art. Following the atrocities of WorldWar I, artists and writers turned away from logic and sought deeper meaning in the unconscious. In one display case, the foundational Surrealists Man Ray and Jean Arp are joined by contemporary artists Betty Tompkins and Bonnie Seeman, who extend interwar engagements with the uncanny into the present. The other display case tracks art and design developments fromArt Deco to Pop Art. 1930s industrial design drew inspiration from the aerodynamic forms of trains, planes, and cars. Three decades after those designers sought to bring avant-garde design to the mass market, Pop Artists did almost the opposite by adoptingmechanical techniques to produce fine art. Art Deco designs displayed alongside objects such as Roy Lictenstein’s dinner set demonstrate the 1960’s disintegration of distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow, or fine art and popular culture. The East Gallery has servedmany functions, from a library to a display for glass goblets, but until now it has seldom featuredmodern and contemporary works from the Allen’s collection. Next time you’re enjoying refreshments in the East Gallery, these displays may cause you to think twice about what you were served out of, what you’re eating on, and how those quotidian objects contribute to the history of design. Organized by SamAdams, Ellen Johnson ’33 Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Above: Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923–1997), Place Setting, Including Dinner Plate, Soup Dish, Salad Plate, Dessert Plate, Saucer, and Tea Cup, 1966. Glazed pottery. Charles F. Olney Fund, 1966.28A-F. Below: Bonnie Seeman (American, b. 1969), Oval Dish, 2004. Porcelain. Gift of Martin Kline in honor of Andria Derstine’s 10th Anniversary as Director, 2022.46. 6 / AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU
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