Two new audio stops on The Block Museum of Art’s Campus Art Walk invite visitors to look closely at outdoor sculptures by Jesús Moroles and Thomas Sternal.
The new entries were researched, written, and recorded by 2025–26 Block Museum curatorial interns Muyang Chen (Anthropology and Art History ’26) and Aja Frazier (History and Asian Languages and Cultures ’26s). Their contributions expand the self-guided audio tour to eighteen sculptures located around Northwestern’s Arts Circle and lakefront.
Jesús Moroles, Ellipse
Jesús Moroles (American, 1950–2015)
Ellipse, ca. 1998
Dusty rose granite
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of William John Robb III and Christine Olson Robb
2024.16
Muyang Chen’s audio entry explores Ellipse (ca. 1998), a towering sculpture made from dusty rose granite. Created by American sculptor Jesús Moroles, the work was given to Northwestern as a gift from William John Robb III and Christine Olson Robb and installed on campus in 2025.
Chen examines how the sculpture changes as viewers move around it. Its smooth, tapering silhouette is interrupted by a steep diagonal cut that exposes a rough surface marked by horizontal striations.
“As you walk around it, the sculpture seems to transform from every angle. Its sleek outline is disrupted by the dramatic slice, creating an asymmetrical profile. The incision exposes a rough surface marked with horizontal striations. These traces are likely left by a saw, highlighting the physical labor of the artist. This combination of textured and polished surfaces is signature to Moroles’s style.””
Moroles worked exclusively with granite throughout his career, particularly favoring the pink granite native to his home state of Texas. His relationship with stone began while working for his uncle’s masonry business and developed further when he encountered granite in a sculpture class at North Texas State University. In 1983, he built a studio in Rockport, Texas, where he continued experimenting with unconventional ways of shaping the exceptionally hard material.
To work through the exceptionally hard material, Moroles used diamond saws and hammered steel wedges into the stone. He compared the process to tearing paper to expose its fibers. The cuts reveal the interior of the granite while recording the force required to split it.
Moroles described his creative process as an attempt “to show the finished pieces as the result of an interaction between man and nature.” The raw and polished surfaces of Ellipse hold both parts of that interaction in view.
Thomas Sternal, Bench Form 91-5
Thomas Sternal (American, 1943–2015)
Bench Form 91-5, 1991
Granite
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Muriel and Philip I. Berman
1992.118
Aja Frazier introduces a work that has been part of Northwestern’s lakefront landscape for more than three decades. Thomas Sternal’s Bench Form 91-5, created in 1991 and installed on campus in 1992, combines two organically shaped pieces of French Creek granite.
One piece remains rough and irregular, echoing the rocks along the nearby shoreline. The other has a smooth, polished surface interrupted by a carved bench extending across its length.
“Viewed from behind, the sculpture blends seamlessly into the Lakefill, almost disappearing into the natural environment. From the front, it resembles a simple seating area, much like the stone benches arranged around the Lakefill campfire. Because of this, visitors may not realize that they’re encountering a work in the Block Museum’s Sculpture Garden.”
Frazier’s research traces the material to the French Creek Quarry in Pennsylvania. One of the relatively few domestic granites quarried in the United States, French Creek granite is recognized for its deep color and distinctive white streaks. Its durability also makes it well suited to a sculpture intended to be touched, used, and experienced outdoors over many decades.
Sternal was drawn to this location after touring Northwestern’s campus with The Block’s director in 1990. He also had a personal connection to the University: his son was a Northwestern student when the sculpture was made.
Bench Form 91-5 belongs to a larger series of bench forms by Sternal, with related works found on university campuses and at art centers around the country. The first number in the title refers to the year the sculpture was made. The second may indicate its place in the sequence of works Sternal created that year, although that interpretation has not been confirmed.
Sternal disliked the distance museums often place between viewers and sculpture. Here, the bench encourages people to touch the stone, sit on it, and experience the work as part of the lakefront.
“You can walk around it and explore its shifting textures. You can step back and notice how naturally it blends into the Lakefill’s landscape. Or you can sit down, resting against the cool, smooth granite. All these interactions would be welcomed by the artist.”
Today, Bench Form 91-5 continues to serve the Northwestern community as both an artwork and a place to pause.
“If you find yourself walking along the Lakefill, take a moment to stop and experience this work. Notice the balance between the natural and polished forms, the contrast between dark granite and lush surroundings. Take a seat on the bench and look out at Northwestern’s campus, always changing.”
The Block Museum Campus Art Walk brings together eighteen sculptures given to Northwestern by Mary and Leigh Block and other supporters. Located outdoors and in publicly accessible spaces around the University’s Arts Circle and lakefront, the works are free to explore at any time.
Use the Campus Art Walk map and audio guide to locate each sculpture and listen online. Visitors may also call (847) 582-0651 and enter the number associated with a work followed by the # key.
