Block Cinema, Global Perspectives

The Block and Asian Languages and Cultures Department bring Asian Pop-up Cinema festival to campus

In October 2023, Northwestern Department of Asian Languages and Cultures Professor Licheng Gu was at AMC Newcity 14 for a movie. The renowned Chicagoland film festival Asian Pop-up Cinema was celebrating the closing night of its season, with the South Korean musical-comedy-thriller Killing Romance (2023). Both its star, the late Lee Sun-kyun, and its director, […]

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Block Cinema, Global Perspectives

Mexican Animation & American Propaganda: The Block hosts first US screening of lost Cold War cartoons

For scholar, visual artist, and philosopher Byron Davies, a collection of finely crafted anti-communist propaganda cartoons produced in Mexico by some of the country’s top animators with support from the United States government offers a window into the relationship between the United States and Latin America, insight into the economy and function of propaganda, and […]

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Global Perspectives, Programs & Events

“Here is Where I am Now”: A conversation with Samia Halaby [Video]

The exhibitionTaking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s on view at The Block in Fall 2022 explores mid-20th-century abstract art from North Africa, West Asia, and the Arab diaspora—a vast geographic expanse that encompasses diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious backgrounds. Comprising nearly 90 works by artists from countries including Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, […]

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Global Perspectives, Programs & Events

Opening Conversation: Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World [Video]

The Block’s Fall 2022 exhibition, Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s explores the wide range of nonfigurative art practices that flourished in the Arab world over the course of four decades. Looking critically at narratives of mid-20th-century abstraction, the exhibition rethinks art-historical canons and expands conversations around global modernisms. The exhibition keynote conversation on […]

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Block Cinema, Global Perspectives, Partnerships

Climate Crisis + Media Arts: Block Museum partners on Buffett Institute Global Working Group

What does climate change actually look and feel like? From forest fires in the American West and desertification in northern China to climate migration in coastal Louisiana and Latin America, the ongoing climate emergency is a global problem that demands radically new, collaborative modes of scholarship and creativity. For the past few years Michael Metzger, the […]

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Global Perspectives, Partnerships

Nigerian museum colleagues connect with The Block during rich summer residency

In the years leading up to the 2019 exhibition Caravans of Gold, Block Museum staff formed relationships with colleagues based at partner institutions in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria. Chief among our collaborators was Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), the federal government agency which manages the collection, documentation, conservation, and presentation of Nigerian […]

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Exhibition Stories, Global Perspectives

New exhibition broadens view of abstract art with works from Arab world and beyond

Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s on view at The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University September 22 – December 4, 2022 From September 22 – December 4, 2022 the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University will present Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s.  The exhibition explores mid-20th-century abstract art […]

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