Despite the current exhibition of her photography at the Block, Bev Grant remains conflicted about being described as an artist. “The artistic eye which informed what I shot and how I framed it belongs to me,” she acknowledges, but “in fact, I took these photos mostly as part of my activism.” On October 9th, to […]
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In 2002, artist Paul Chan was working as a member of the Iraq Peace Team, formed by the Chicago-based activist group Voices in the Wilderness (now Voices for Creative Nonviolence), which was on the ground in Bagdad to protest the imminent Iraqi war. Chan captured the calm before the storm in his “ambient video essay,” […]
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In the heart of the South Side of Chicago, an 85-acre area abutting a railyard means different things to different people. For more than 400 African American families, it is home. For Norfolk Southern railroad company, it is space to expand its train-to-truck intermodal depot. The 2018 documentary The Area tells a story that’s well known […]
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Each week throughout Spring 2020, a member of The Block’s team has offered selections that resonate with them at this moment. Today, Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Curator of Media Arts, chooses the platform to draw attention to a single event with relevance to our moment “The images of police violence that have circulated over the last […]
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In July 2018 the Block Museum hosted “Films and Videos by David Wojnarowicz and Collaborators” a screening and conversation presented in partnership with Iceberg Projects in conjunction with the exhibition David Wojnarowicz: Flesh of My Flesh. (June 23 – August 4, 2018) David Wojnarowicz is arguably one of the most important artists to emerge from the New York art […]
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The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art galleries re-opened on January 18th with Left Front: Radical Art in the “Red Decade,” 1929–1940, and Steichen ǀ Warhol: Picturing Fame, with welcoming remarks by Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro. Featured exhibitions take two distinct approaches to exploring class and society in America during the 20th century […]
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