Collection Spotlight: Two Forms (Divided Circle), Barbara Hepworth

Bynublockmuseum April 9, 2020 0 Comments
Title: Two Forms (Divided Circle)Artist: Barbara Hepworth (British, 1903–1975)Year: 1969Medium: Cast bronze with brown patinaSize: 93 x 89 x 23 inchesCredit: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Leigh B. Block, 1988.3.3 Barbara Hepworth made Two Forms (Divided Circle) at the end of a decade in which she dedicated herself to works that incorporated the viewer....

“The Picture Is the Window”: Lynn Gumpert and Lisa Corrin on Abby Grey and intrepid art collecting [Audio]

Bynublockmuseum April 3, 2020 0 Comments
Consisting of more than 700 artworks, the Abby Weed Grey Collection of Modern Asian and Middle Eastern Art at New York University comprises the largest institutional holdings of Iranian, Turkish and Indian modern art in any American university museum.  This unparalleled historical resource was amassed by Abby Weed Grey (1902-1983), a self-described “dyed-in-the-wool...

Letter from the Director: Museums have a unique role to play

Bynublockmuseum April 3, 2020 0 Comments
On behalf of all of us at The Block Museum of Art, I am writing to tell you that we are thinking of the health and safety of our campus, our regional community, and the cultural community internationally at this very difficult and uncertain time. In his recent message to the Northwestern community, President Schapiro reminded us that we all need extra measures of compassion, patience,...

“Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago” sheds new light on Chicago’s rich collections

Bynublockmuseum March 4, 2020 0 Comments
The Block Museum is proud to be among the many Chicago collections with work on view in Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Loans from The Block collection to the exhibition include; the abstract painting One (1970) by Sam Gilliam; Monochrome und Feuer (1961), a silkscreen triptych by Yves Klein; and the photograph Untitled (Nomsa Brath with earrings designed...

Iranian artist and filmmaker Mania Akbari brings personal new work to Block Cinema

Bynublockmuseum February 28, 2020 0 Comments
Block Museum hosts Chicago premiere of A Moon for My Father (2019) At age 30, acclaimed artist and filmmaker Mania Akbari was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy.  This experience became the core of the Iranian director’s personal new work A Moon for My Father (2019), an essay film made in collaboration with her partner, the British sculptor Douglas White. On...

Scholarship in Action: Undergraduates highlight their Block research at College Art Association conference

Bynublockmuseum February 24, 2020 0 Comments
Northwestern students share their "Progressive" vision for museum exhibition On February 14th, 2020, Northwestern University students Meghan Clare Considine, Emily Rose Andrey, Nicholas Liou, and Brianna Heath presented their ongoing research in a poster session at 108th College Art Association Annual Conference. Their poster "Caravans of Gold: Making a Progressive Web App Exhibition on Medieval...

Meet Emmanuel Ramos-Barajas, Block Museum Media and Communications Coordinator

Bynublockmuseum February 20, 2020 0 Comments
This month the Block Museum welcomes Emmanuel Ramos-Barajas in the role of Media and Communications Coordinator. Emmanuel will be supporting the work of the Museum's marketing and communication department, focusing on expanding the Block's reach and growing its audiences both in the galleries and online. We sat down with Emmanuel to learn more about his media production background and interest...

Association of American Publishers names Block Museum publication as finalist for 2020 Prose Award

Bynublockmuseum February 18, 2020 0 Comments
On February 12, 2020, The Association of American Publishers (AAP) unveiled finalists for the 2020 Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) Awards honoring scholarly works published in 2019, comprising a total of 157 finalists across 49 subject categories. Since 1976, the Association of American Publishers’ annual PROSE Awards have recognized publishers who produce...

‘Modernisms’ reveals artistic responses to the 20th-century’s ‘crisis in humanity’

Bynublockmuseum February 11, 2020 0 Comments
The Block Museum hosts rare look at Modernist art from Iran, Turkey, and India Visitors to The Block Museum of Art have an unprecedented opportunity to view 114 artworks from global artists during a period of rapid modernization with the exhibition, “Modernisms: Iranian, Turkish, and Indian Highlights from NYU’s Abby Weed Grey Collection.” It is part of the museum’s season of Global...

“I invest in myself and I make my films”: Jessie Maple on breaking boundaries and filmmaking [Audio]

Bynublockmuseum February 6, 2020 0 Comments
Director Jessie Maple is a true trailblazer: the first African-American woman to join the International Photographers of Motion Picture & Television union, she also established a long-running venue for independent Black filmmakers in her own home. New York Women in Film and Television called Maple’s work “a forerunner of the independent, minority filmmaking that would cultivate...