Modern Art Oxford is an

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

established in 1965 in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, 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 Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

, many exhibitions, events, activities and workshops are free for visitors.

History

Modern Art Oxford's premises at 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford were designed by the architect Harry Drinkwater 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 Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

, 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 Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 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 became director in 1973, with

Sandy Nairne Alexander Robert Nairne (born 8 June 1953) is a British art historian and curator. From 2002 until February 2015 he was the director of the National Portrait Gallery, London. Life and career Nairne was responsible for the successful recovery o ...

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. D ...

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

exhibitions. His contributions also included multiple gallery renovations. He resigned his position in 1996 to become the director of the Moderna Museet 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, preferred larger shows of American and

European art The art of Europe, also known as 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 betw ...

, 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., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

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 Oxford Brookes University (OBU; formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. Th ...

. He shifted the focus to exhibitions of contemporary artists, who have included Cecily Brown, Jake and Dinos Chapman,

Tracey Emin Dame Tracey Karima Emin (; born 3 July 1963) is an English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. She produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, Neon lighting, neon text ...

, Gary Hume, Daniel Buren, Stella Vine,

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.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 An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

. 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 Abramovic (1995, 2022–23); Carl Andre (1997), Lubaina Himid (2017), Ruth Asawa (2022), 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. * Jake and Dinos Chapman ''The Rape of Creativity'' (April – June 2003) – the artists bought a mint collection of 80

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 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, an ...

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

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Sumpter, Helen
"The brothers grim in the city of spires"
BBC, 17 April 2003. Retrieved 3 February 2009. and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' reviewed the show.Dorment, Richard
Inspired Vandalism
The Daily Telegraph 27 May 2003. Retrieved 3 February 2009. * Stella Vine (July – September 2007) – a solo show of by the Britart painter including more than 100 paintings and a catalogue essay by

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she ...

.Barber, Lynne
"Vine Times"
8 July 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2008.Deedes, Henry

The Independent, 18 September 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2009.

Notes and references

External links

Modern Art Oxford
official site
Art Guide entry

{{Authority control Art museums and galleries in Oxford Modern art museums Art museums and galleries established in 1965 1965 establishments in England