Lonnie Bunch was on a tight schedule while in town to deliver Northwestern University’s commencement address. But the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution made time to view a groundbreaking exhibition at The Block Museum of Art — which will travel next year to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. Bunch, recently appointed as 14th […]
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, The Block’s associate director of curatorial affairs, recently presented on the Block exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time to an international audience at the Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy. Her talk, “A World in a Fragment: Visualizing Trans-Saharan Exchange through Object-Based Comparisons […]
Title: To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults Artists: Jess T. Dugan (b. 1986) and Vanessa Fabbre (b. 1978) Nationality: American Date: 2018 Medium: Portfolio of 12 color photograph prints on Hahnemühle Fine Art Photo Rag Pearl and 12 text panels on Canson Edition Etching Rag Credit: […]
Every year The Block hosts the Master of Fine Arts degree candidates in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University for a spring exhibition—in which MFA candidates present their thesis work, concluding two years of intensive artistic development. This year’s thesis exhibition, colorless green ideas sleep furiously., is accompanied by events, programming […]
Images ranging from landscapes to botanical studies are among the 50 photographs by celebrated American photographer Brett Weston (1911–1993) given to The Block Museum of Art by Christian Keesee, who, in 1996, acquired the most complete collection of Weston’s work directly from the photographer’s estate. Keesee has given a portion of the collection to several museums […]
Artist Dario Robleto returned to Evanston this spring to continue his ongoing collaboration as Northwestern’s inaugural Artist-at-Large, hosted by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and The Block Museum of Art. The Artist-at-Large Program brings contemporary artists to campus for in-depth exchanges with faculty and students; the Program joins other activities organized by […]
The publication Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio has received a 2019 Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC). Corinne Granof, The Block’s curator of academic programs and co-editor of Up is Down, attended the 2019 AAMC conference and accepted the award. Co-editor Amy Beste, […]
Internationally acclaimed artist and MacArthur Fellow Fred Wilson addressed audiences at The Block on April 16, 2019. In his talk, Wilson shared insights into his work Afro Kismet— resonant with themes of migration and history explored in the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa. Throughout his career, […]
Title: Happiness (finally) after 35,000 years of civilization Artist: Paul Chan Nationality: American, born Hong Kong, 1973 Date: 1999-2003 Medium: Single-channel digital video on mini-PC, color, with sound, 17:20 min Credit: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Peter Norton, 2016.4.8a A writer, activist, and artist celebrated for efforts in video, sculpture, performance and installation, Paul […]
On April 4, a group curated by D. Soyini Madison, Professor of Performance Studies, responded to Isaac Julien’s The Leopard and to our current moment through dance and movement. Audiences gathered in The Block galleries to witness the performance, which transpired in tandem with a screening of Julien’s work. Beginning with a short reading of original verse, the […]