ASHMOLEAN EXHIBITION AND DISPLAY PROGRAMME 2024-25 - Press Release
The Ashmolean Museum is delighted to announce the next two shows in its major exhibition programme in 2024-25. Opening in August 2024, Money Talks: Art, Society and Power will look at the art of global currency and the depiction of money in art. In spring 2025, Anselm Kiefer: Early Works will celebrate Kiefer’s 80th year and will be the first UK exhibition to explore the early output of one of the most significant artists working today. In addition to ticketed exhibitions, the Museum will host a rich variety of free exhibitions and temporary displays, showing works on loan and from the permanent collections.
TICKETED EXHIBITIONS
Money Talks: Art, Society and Power
John Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries | 9 August 2024-5 January 2025
Money Talks: Art, Society and Power will explore the art of physical and digital money, and the complex representation of money in art. The exhibition will feature more than 100 objects from across the globe, from coins and banknotes to artworks by Warhol, Guerrilla Girls, Grayson Perry and Banksy, to the new phenomenon of crypto currency and NFTs. Money Talks will reveal compelling and humorous stories, and examine our tense relationships with money, art and the values we assign them.
Anselm Kiefer: Early Works
John Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries | 14 February-15 June 2025
Anselm Kiefer: Early Works will be a landmark survey of the artist’s work produced between 1969-1982. Drawn from the extraordinary collection of the Hall Art Foundation (USA and Germany), the exhibition will show 45 works rarely displayed in public before. Marking Kiefer’s 80th year, the exhibition will feature paintings, photos and mixed-media work and will include less well-known, intimate pieces. The exhibition will also include new work produced for the Ashmolean show.
FREE EXHIBITIONS AND DISPLAYS
Li Jin with Roger Law: Simple Pleasures
Gallery 11 | 4 May-17 November 2024
This new display celebrates the friendship between the British caricaturist behind Spitting Image, Roger Law (b. 1941), and Chinese painter Li Jin (b. 1958). Active since the 1980s, Li Jin is best known for his playful and witty work which subverts the classical themes of an ideal, elegant and serene life in Chinese literati painting. After producing Spitting Image for more than a decade, Roger Law moved to Australia in the late 1990s and discovered Li Jin's work, then travelled to China to meet him. They have since formed a lasting friendship. As the first solo show for Li Jin in the UK, this display introduces the artist’s signature subjects and style, featuring works recently presented to the Ashmolean by Roger Law. A selection of Roger Law’s drawings and ceramic works will also be displayed to highlight their shared sense of humour and artistic inspiration.
National Treasures: The Wilton Diptych in Oxford
Gallery 41 | 10 May-1 September 2024
This May, the Ashmolean Museum will be proud to display one of the greatest treasures to have survived from the Middle Ages: the National Gallery’s Wilton Diptych. The new display at the Ashmolean will be one of 12 simultaneous displays at museums and galleries around the country, all celebrating the National Gallery’s 200th anniversary. The Wilton Diptych in Oxford will be shown in the Ashmolean’s England 400–1600 Gallery, setting the painting among the Museum’s English collections, offering a new context for this well-loved and famous masterpiece. This will be the first time the diptych has ever been lent by the National Gallery since the painting was acquired in 1929.
ASHMOLEAN NOW 3: Bettina von Zwehl
Gallery 8 | 12 October 2024-11 May 2025
ASHMOLEAN NOW is a series of exhibitions representing early to mid-career artists based in the UK. The third edition features photographs by London-based artist, Bettina von Zwehl (b. 1971). During a residency in Oxford from 2022-23, von Zwehl spent time researching the Ashmolean’s founding collections – the wonderfully diverse objects and works of art which were displayed when the Museum first opened in the 17th century. This served as inspiration for a unique photographic Wunderkammer installation that moves between portraiture, silhouetted fragments, still-life, monumental and miniature elements, as well as non-art objects and specimens from natural history collections. Von Zwehl's aim is to rekindle wonder and curiosity as critical tools for exploring new ideas and practices.
Kabuki Kimono: Costumes of Bandō Tamasaburō V
Gallery 5 | 14 December 2024-9 November 2025
This display will be a new rotation of spectacular kimonos belonging to the kabuki actor Bandō Tamasaburō V. Tamasaburō is the most popular and celebrated onnagata (male actor who performs female roles) currently on stage. The costumes selected reflect the wide variety of roles in the actor's long and celebrated theatre career, from court ladies and courtesans to geisha and demons. You'll see beautifully crafted costumes that showcase a range of elaborate textile techniques, including weaving, dyeing, embroidery and hand-painting.
ENDS
CONTACT DETAILS
Claire Parris, Press and Publicity Manager
University of Oxford Gardens and Museums
claire.parris@ashmus.ox.ac.uk / +44 (0)7833 384 512
PRESS IMAGES
Images for editorial use are available to download at: https://go.glam.ox.ac.uk/Ashmolean2024-5
NOTES TO EDITORS
Venue: Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH
Tickets: prices to be announced; available at the Museum or online at www.ashmolean.org
ABOUT THE ASHMOLEAN
The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1683. Our world-famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time.
Admission: general admission is free, no booking required.
Open: daily, 10:00-17:00
