Silkscreens by OC grads stolen from Allen Museum

Somehow local thieves pegged the Allen Memorial Art Museum easy pickings. An exterior banner and a silkscreen poster disappeared from AMAM within the last week, leaving AMAM officials appealing to everyone's general conscience for the return of the stolen articles.

Safety and Security first noticed the absence of the exterior canvas banner, measuring approximately 4' x 5', on Saturday. The banner advertised the current exhibition "Utopia and Alienation: German Art and Expressionism, 1900-1933" which will be up from Sept. 17 to Dec. 19.

"We'd really like it back," said AMAM Assistant Director Leslie Miller.

The lost silkscreen poster poses a graver loss for Professor of Studio Art John Pearson. One poster was stolen over the weekend, while another disappeared two and half weeks ago. Pearson's students use the posters for his introductory studio art course, "Visual Concepts and Processes: Silkscreen," as reference texts.

The exhibit, which ran for the past month, will be taken down today. AMAM extended the showing another week for the Trustees Meeting this weekend. The Trustees will hold a meeting down the hall from the exhibit. Most of the 100 posters were framed and placed in Fisher Hall Gallery, while 20-25 others were thumb-tacked up in an adjacent corridor that runs between Fisher Hall and two studio art classrooms.

Pearson's introductory classes produced all of the posters on exhibit. Most were created in the last five years.

Pearson said, "One of the assignments that I give is for the students to create a poster for an event."

He encourages his students to find a client for a current campus event, and they work with the client to produce advertising posters. The students produce 50 posters, and Pearson saves two of the silk-screens for his archived collection. The missing posters are irreplaceable.

The first poster, stolen two and a half weeks ago, featured a 'Sco party that dated back to five years ago. It measured approximately 18" x 24". The artist, David Geddes, used black and red ink with a dramatic, explosive image of a women's face. Geddes employed a cross-section of strange texts, including the word "f*cking" running down the right hand side. Pearson believed the eye-catching text might have interested its thief.

"They are very inventive, these images, very funny and witty. They catch the eye," said Pearson. A poster adjacent to the stolen 'Sco poster depicted the backside of a woman with her skirt pulled up, exposing her underpants.

The second missing poster promoted Drag Ball and also dated to about five years ago. This poster measured 12" x 15" and was designed with black and pink ink. It contained the image of a woman dressed up in drag and was one of a pair of posters by the same artist, unknown to Pearson, advertising Drag Ball.

Pearson hopes to retrieve the works and emphasized the value of the artwork. "I use these as a pedagogical device and [the theft] deprives others students of the experience," said Pearson. He currently has a growing collection of 200 posters for his class.

Despite the thefts, Pearson did secure the non-framed posters after two disappeared. He said, "In a way I have a great faith in humanity. If I have to get police guards to watch the corridor it ruins the idea of freedom."

Pearson cited an AMAM exhibition a few years agothat featured an exhibition of valuable Russian propaganda posters dating back to 1948. The owners of the collection, from Kiev, insisted that they be displayed without frames in their original format. All of the posters remained intact during the showing.

A certain degree of theft is expected when Pearson's class first posts their work around campus. I guarantee at least 30 percent get ripped off before the event," said Pearson. To combat the thievery, his students usually put half of their posters up a week before the event, and the other half closer to the day of the event.

Pearson may not exhibit the artwork in the future due to the unexpected thefts. Pearson said, "Its makes me think twice about doing another exhibition with posters.

I'd rather keep them for the students in the class."

Above all, he would like to see the silkscreens returned. "If they suddenly show up again I am not going to ask any nasty questions," said Pearson.