Throughout 2020-21 The Block Museum is reflecting on artworks from the collection that explore ideas of excess, consumption, and the environment, and offer an interdisciplinary perspective on the climate crisis. Our project is inspired by The Story of More by Hope Jahren, Northwestern University’s 2021-2022 One Book One Northwestern (OBON) selection. In this online talk, Lois Taylor Biggs, […]
Read more
Artist: Dayanita Singh (Indian, born 1961) Title: Pothi Box Date: 2018 Medium: 30 unbound image cards, teakwood enclosure, and embroidered muslin Dimensions: 7 7/8 x 6 ½ x 1 in Credit line: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Lisa Graziose Corrin […]
Read more
How might one artwork be used as a point of connection for a deeper understanding of history, artmaking, collecting practices, identity, and more? The Block Museum of Art is proud to publish an interactive close looking project, the result of graduate research centered on the 1996 print Mother and Child by artist Margaret Burroughs (American, 1915 […]
Read more
Artist: Mikki Ferrill (American, born 1937)Title: Untitled, Chicago, ILDate: ca.1965, printed before 1980Medium: Gelatin silver printCredit line: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, the Irwin and Andra S. Press Collection Endowment Fund purchase, 2021.15 Image: Courtesy of the artist © Mikki Ferrill In 1960s Chicago, the Black gay and trans communities came […]
Read more
Artist: Miguel Covarrubias (Mexican, 1904–1957)Title: Mexican Street SceneDate: ca. 1940Medium: Lithograph on paperDimensions: 12.7 x 10 inCredit line: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Gift of Anthony and Carolyn Donato, 1997.16 Artist Miguel Covarrubias, who worked also as a writer, curator, and anthropologist, was born and raised in Mexico City. He first moved […]
Read more
Artist: Charles Swedlund (American, born 1935)Title: Chicago,Ill.Date: 1958Medium: Gelatin silver printDimensions: 9 × 5 in.Credit: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Steve Nordman, 2018.12.2 Photographer Charles Swedlund was a student at the Institute of Design (ID) when he made a series of photographs using Chicago and its inhabitants as subject matter. […]
Read more
Artist: Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879)Title: Rue Transnonain, le 15 Avril 1834 (Rue Transnonain, on April 15, 1834)Date: 1834Medium: Lithograph on white wove paperDimensions:14 3/8 x 21 5/8 inchesCredit line: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Gift of Sidney and Vivian Kaplan, 2002.3.18 The central figure of Honoré Daumier’s Rue Transnonain, le 15 […]
Read more
Artist: Emmanuel Bakary Daou (Malian, born San, Mali, 1960) Titles:Compagne de lavement de mains (Handwashing Campaign) from the series Le temps Ebola (Ebola Times), 2018.10.1 [featured image] Compagne de lavement de mains (Handwashing Campaign) from the series Le temps Ebola (Ebola Times), 2018.10.2 Centre Opérational d’urgence Bamako (Emergency Operations Center Bamako) from the series Le temps Ebola (Ebola Times), 2018.10.3 Centre Opérational d’urgence […]
Read more
Artist: Prentiss TaylorTitle: Scottsboro Limited, from the portfolio ScottsboroDate: 1932Medium: LithographDimensions: 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 in.Credit: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, 1992.57 In Scottsboro, Alabama in 1931, nine young Black men, ranging in age from 13 to 19 years old, were falsely accused of raping two white women on a […]
Read more
Artist: Michael Schwab (German, born 1966)Title: Die grossen Turner aus der Heidburg mit den “Bananen-Bäuchen”, Siegfried u. Kunigunde vom Lehrer gennant (The great gymnasts of Heidburg with the “banana-bellies”—called Siegfried and Kunigunde by their teacher), from the series Erinnern (Remembering)Date: 1993Medium: Gelatin silver printDimensions: 24 x 19 15/16 in.Credit line: Mary and Leigh Block Museum […]
Read more