Modern Art Oxford is an art gallery established in 1965 in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England. From 1965 to 2002, it was called The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. The gallery presents exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. It has a national and international reputation for quality of exhibitions, projects and commissions, which are supported by a learning and engagement programme with audiences in excess of 100,000 each year. Funded primarily by Arts Council England, many exhibitions, events, activities and workshops are free for visitors.

History

Modern Art Oxford's premises at 30

Pembroke Street, Oxford Pembroke Street is a street in central Oxford, England. St Ebbes Street is to the west and major thoroughfare of St Aldate's, Oxford, St Aldate's is to the east. Modern Art Oxford (formerly the Museum of Modern Art) is located on the north s ...

were designed by the architect

Harry Drinkwater Harry George Walter Drinkwater (1844–1895) was an English architect who practised in and around Oxford. His work included several churches and public houses. Life Drinkwater was born in Warwick on 17 March 1844, the son of George Drinkwater, a ...

and built in 1892 as a square room and stores for Hanley's City Brewery. The gallery was founded by architect Trevor Green in 1965.Our history
, Modern Art Oxford. Retrieved 13 November 2013. With funding from the Arts Council of Great Britain, the gallery survived as a venue for temporary exhibitions. It was widely known as MoMA Oxford, similar to other international modern art spaces such as MoMA in New York. It was renamed "Modern Art Oxford" in 2002. Adrian Searle of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' commented, "Perhaps the museum bit was only ever there to confuse tourists and convince gowny academic Oxford that modern art was worth taking seriously."

Directorship

Several transitory directors oversaw the gallery until

Nicholas Serota Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, (born 27 April 1946) is an English art historian and curator, who served as the Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017. He is currently Chair of Arts Council England, a role which he has held since February 2017. ...

became director in 1973, with Sandy Nairne as assistant director. David Elliott replaced Serota in 1976. Elliott's programme focused on media that were often ignored by bigger public galleries at the time, such as photography, architecture and graphic design. Under Elliott's directorship, MoMA held photography exhibitions such as the

Robert Doisneau Robert Doisneau (; 14 April 1912 – 1 April 1994) was a French photographer. From the 1930s, he photographed the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and with Henri Cartier-Bresson a pioneer of photojournalism. Dois ...

Retrospective in 1992. Elliott introduced up-and-coming artists from Africa, Asia and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and at various times also held major

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

exhibitions. His contributions also included multiple gallery renovations. He resigned his position in 1996 to become the director of the

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...

in Stockholm, having served the longest term of any director in the history of the gallery. Elliott's replacement, an American from Los Angeles,

Kerry Brougher Kerry Brougher is the founding director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California. He has served as curator at several museums, most recently as the curator and acting director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden ...

, preferred larger shows of

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and

European art The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleo ...

, and, like Elliott, exhibitions focusing on film and media. In 2000, Brougher left to join the

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...

in Washington, D.C. Brougher was replaced by Andrew Nairne, who renamed the gallery, coordinated additional enhancements to the building, and donated the gallery's substantial library of art books and catalogues to Oxford Brookes University. He shifted the focus to exhibitions of contemporary artists, who have included Cecily Brown,

Jake and Dinos Chapman Iakovos "Jake" Chapman (born 1966) and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman (born 1962) are British visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers. Their subject matter tries to be deliberately shocking, including, in 2008, a series of works that ...

Tracey Emin Tracey Karima Emin, CBE, RA (; born 3 July 1963) is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and ...

Gary Hume Gary Stewart Hume (born 9 May 1962) is an English artist. Hume's work is strongly identified with the YBA who came to prominence in the early 1990s. Hume lives and works in London and Accord, New York.

, Daniel Buren,

Stella Vine Stella Vine (born Melissa Jane Robson, 1969) is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting, with subjects drawn from personal life, as well as from rock stars, royalty, and other celebrities. In 2001, she ...

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

and

Kerry James Marshall Kerry James Marshall (born October 17, 1955) is an American artist and professor, known for his paintings of Black figures. He previously taught painting at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2017, Marshall ...

.1965–2005 Modern Art Oxford Timeline
, Modern Art Oxford, 2005. Retrieved 1 February 2009. Nairne left the gallery in 2008 to take up a senior managerial position at the Arts Council. Michael Stanley assumed the directorship in January 2009. David Thorp assumed interim directorship in October 2012 following the death of Michael Stanley. Paul Hobson was appointed Director in April 2013 and took up the post that September.

Notable exhibitions and shows

Artists' exhibitions have included Richard Long (1971); Sol Le Witt (1973) Joseph Beuys (1974); Donald Judd (1995); Marina Abramovich (1995); Carl Andre (1997) and Yoko Ono (1997). Since the renaming of the gallery, notable exhibitions have included: *

''This Is Another Place'' (November 2002 – January 2003) - marked the reopening of Modern Art Oxford by and was her first British solo exhibition since 1997. The exhibition contained drawings, etchings, film, neon works such as ''Fuck off and die, you slag'' and sculptures including a large scale wooden pier, called ''Knowing My Enemy''.Searle, Adrian
Ouch

, 12 November 2002. Retrieved 3 February 2009. *

''The Rape of Creativity'' (April – June 2003) - the artists bought a mint collection of 80

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

prints and systematically defaced them.Jones, Jonathan
Look What We Did
31 March 2003. Retrieved 3 February 2009. The

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...

History

Directorship

Notable exhibitions and shows

Notes and references

External links