Northwestern Learning

Collection Talk: Alan Cohen, “Now (Slave Plantation, St. John, Virgin Islands), 09-01” [Video]

Throughout 2022-23 a series of talks considers works from the Block’s collection that reckon with the history of slavery, white supremacy, symbols of nationhood, and social inequity. This series is held in connection with 2022–23 One Book One Northwestern selection “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America” by Clint Smith. In […]

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Artist Collaborations, Student Associates

Parting Gift: Artist Leonard Suryajaya unveils photographic collaboration with Block Museum students

per·en·ni·al /pəˈrenēəl/: Enduring or continually recurring On June 13, 2022 – Northwestern’s 164th Commencement Day – The Block Museum of Art is thrilled to unveil an original artwork created for the museum’s collection by Chicago-based contemporary artist Leonard Suryajaya in collaboration with the 2021-2022 Block Museum of Art Student Associates. The large-scale photograph Perennial Blossom, […]

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Programs & Events

“We celebrate one another’s specificities”: Leonard Suryajaya in conversation [Video]

As part of the Block Museum’s Student Acquisition initiative, Northwestern students in the 2020-2021 Block Museum Student Associates program selected artist Leonard Suryajaya’s Quarantine Blues (2020) for the museum’s collection. Suryajaya’s work explores complex intersections of intimacy, community and family, and how the “everyday is layered with histories, meanings, and potential.”  In October 2021, Suryajaya joined the […]

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Collection Spotlight

Collection Spotlight: The great gymnasts of Heidburg…,Michael Schwab

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 […]

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Collection Spotlight

Collection Spotlight: Unidentified Man on Bike, Andy Warhol

Title: Unidentified Man on Bike Artist: Andy Warhol Nationality: American, 1928–87 Date: ca. 1980 Medium: gelatin silver print Credit: Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2008.1.128. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Unidentified Man on a Bike was donated to The Block Museum as part of the Andy Warhol […]

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Collection Spotlight

Collection Spotlight: Skeeter, Catherine Opie

Title: Skeeter Artist: Catherine Opie (American, born 1961) Date: 1993 Medium: Chromogenic print Edition: 5 of 8 Dimensions: 40 x 30 in. Credit: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Armyan Bernstein and Christine Meleo Bernstein, 2018.9. Reproduced with permission from the artist. Skeeter; Sunflowers; Sunrise “A lot of my friends […]

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