You are here: ĢƵ College of Arts & Sciences ĢƵ Museum 2023 Song of Songs: Fruitful Relationships

Lillian Klein Abensohn
Song of Songs: Fruitful Relationships

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Artist

September 9–October 15, 2023

Lillian Klein Abensohn asks “What’s really important?” These playful still lifes offer a tongue-in-cheek take on fundamental and complex human relationships.

Read the exhibition catalog online

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Knowing What’s Inside…, 2021-22. Oil on Belgian linen panel, 18 x 21 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Knowing What’s Inside…, 2021-22. Oil on Belgian linen panel, 18 x 21 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Exhibition Overview

Initially, the artist considered reproduction as the most important aspect of life, and she explored this idea in various compositions of fruits and vegetables as allegories. Gradually, however, she realized that the compositions were of relationships, juxtapositions of the subject matter which revealed more than just sexual attraction.

Using the traditional techniques of the Dutch masters, Klein Abensohn tackles societal, familial, and interpersonal dynamics--from suggestive, generative allusions of sumptuous produce to pears that inhabit female archetypes. The most essential relationships, be they sexual, personal, familial, or racial are alluded to in her myriad of forms—coyly, directly, ironically.

Each of these ways of relating to one another and to oneself are portrayed through the common fruits and vegetables we live with – and ingest – on a daily basis.

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Seduction, 2021-22. Oil on Belgian linen panel, 18 x 21 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Seduction, 2021-22. Oil on Belgian linen panel, 18 x 21 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Spilling Seed, 2021-22. Oil on Belgian linen panel, 18 x 21 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Spilling Seed, 2021-22. Oil on Belgian linen panel, 18 x 21 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Tomato Orgy, 2021-22. Oil on Belgian linen panel, 18 x 21 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Lillian Klein Abensohn, Tomato Orgy, 2021-22. Oil on Belgian linen panel, 18 x 21 inches. Courtesy of the artist.