October 13, 2003
November 2003 Visual Arts Calendar
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art: 40 Arts Circle
Drive, Evanston campus. The new museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and
noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The museum is closed on Monday.
Admission is free. For information regarding Block Museum exhibitions,
programs or location, phone (847) 491-4000. Or go to the Block
Museum Web site at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
The Block Museum has five gallery spaces for patrons to view
multiple exhibitions. In addition to the Main Gallery and the Alsdorf
Gallery, the building can accommodate a broad range of educational
opportunities by means of the 150-seat James B. Pick and Rosalyn
M. Laudati Auditorium, the Ellen Philips Katz and Howard C. Katz
Gallery/Classroom, the Print, Drawing and Photography Study Center,
and the Theo Leffmann Gallery.
BLOCK FALL EXHIBITIONS
“Drawn toward the Avant-Garde: Nineteenth and Twentieth
Century French Drawings from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen,” Sept.
26 through Nov. 30, Main Gallery. Paris, center of artistic
experimentation and production during the 19th and 20th centuries,
was a focal point of the European art world. This exhibition
showcases 80 rarely exhibited drawings and watercolors by Ingres,
Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Picasso and others. It provides
an elegant survey, tracing the intersections between traditional
media and modern interpretations. This exhibition has been organized
and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Va.
“Old Master Drawings from the Collection: Traditional
Drawing Practices in European Art,” Sept. 26 through Nov.
30, Print, Drawing and Photography Study Center. This
exhibition highlights the Block Museum’s collection of
Northern European and Italian drawings from the 16th and 17th
centuries. Many were donated to the University in the early 1960s
by Mr. and Mrs. Norman Pritchard and have not been on display
for more than 20 years. This collection offers an excellent opportunity
to consider traditional practices in European drawings.
“Up To and Including Her Limits,” Sept.
26 through Dec. 14, Ellen Philips Katz and Howard C. Katz Gallery/Classroom. Carolee
Schneemann is a pioneering, taboo-breaking multidisciplinary
artist who transformed the discourse on the body, sexuality and
gender. This site-specific installation is based on her performances
from 1973 to 1976 in which Schneemann, suspended naked from a
tree surgeon’s harness, created a dense web of markings
akin to Jackson Pollock’s action painting.
“Honoré Daumier: Public and Private Domains,” Oct.
4 through Dec. 14, Alsdorf Gallery. Honoré Daumier’s
work straddles the spheres of journalism, fine art, caricature
and satire to make critical, incisive and humorous commentary
that attacked government officials, the bourgeoisie, and everyone
in between. The exhibition draws upon the recent gift of more
than 350 Daumier lithographs donated by Sidney and Vivian Kaplan.
ONGOING EXHIBITION
“Theo Leffmann: Weaving a Life into Art,” ongoing
exhibition that re-opens Sept. 26, Mary and Leigh Block Museum
of Art, Theo Leffmann Gallery. Theo Leffmann is recognized
as a rich contributor to the American fiber art movement in the
late 20th century. For more than 30 years, she liberated textiles
from practical and decorative applications by using them as a
means of personal expression. The Theo Leffmann Gallery is dedicated
to Leffmann’s work and highlights selections from the more
than 75 fiber constructions by Leffmann in the Block Museum’s
permanent collection.
EXHIBITION TOURS
Exhibition Tours, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Mary
and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Oct. 4 through Dec. 14. Docent-led
tours of the four fall exhibitions will be held at 2 p.m. on
the following weekends: Nov. 1-2, Nov. 8-9, Nov. 15-16, Nov.
22-23, Nov. 29-30, Dec. 6-7 and Dec. 13-14. Reservations are
not required. To schedule a private or group tour for your organization
or school, call the educational department at (847) 491-4852.
LECTURE
Phyllis
Ellis Lecture: “Strategies of Humor,” Elizabeth
Childs, professor of art history, Washington University, 5:30
p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6. Professor Childs, a leading scholar
in the interpretation of the art and context of Daumier, will
discuss the satire and multiple meanings in Daumier’s political
lithographs. She will discuss the use of humor in print publications
and as a strategic component in Daumier’s biting political
and social critiques. A small reception will follow. Support
for this program is provided by Northwestern’s art theory
and practice, art history, and French and Italian departments.
BLOCK SCULPTURE GARDEN
The
sculpture collection of the Block Museum of Art constitutes one
of the
most significant groupings of modern sculpture in the
region. In 1987, Leigh Block, one of the museum’s inaugural
donors and a preeminent collector of modern art, bequested a large
group of outdoor bronze sculptures to the museum. These pieces
formed the core of the collection, which now features monumental
sculptures by some of the 20th century’s most renowned European
and American sculptors. They include Jean (Hans) Arp, Barbara Hepworth,
Jacques Lipchitz, Joan Miró and Henry Moore.
In 1989, the museum opened its Sculpture Garden with nine of
the monumental bronzes donated by Block. The Sculpture Garden was
designed by Chicago architect John Vinci and has grown to 22 pieces
through donations and acquisitions. Profiles of the artists and
their works, and a brochure detailing the sculpture collection,
are available online on the Block Museum Web site at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/sculpture.html.
The Sculpture Garden is open year-round. To arrange a free, docent-guided
tour of the Sculpture Garden, call the educational department at
(847) 491-4852.
DITTMAR MEMORIAL GALLERY
Dittmar Memorial Gallery: Norris University
Center, 1999 Campus Drive, Evanston campus. The gallery is open
from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Admission is free.
The Dittmar Memorial Gallery places emphasis on ethnic cultural
art, art by emerging artists, art by or about women, artwork by
Northwestern undergraduate and graduate art students and traveling
art shows.
For information, call the Dittmar Gallery at (847) 491-2348 or
Norris University Center at (847) 491-2300, or go to the Norris
Center Web site at www.northwestern.edu/norris/dittmar.html.
“de-familiarization,” an
exhibition by Sung Jae Bang, Oct. 24 through Dec. 7, Dittmar
Memorial Gallery. Artist
Sung Jae Bang, who creates works of mixed media, takes familiar
things and transforms them into bizarre circumstances in order
to trigger associations between those images and the viewer’s
experiences. Through the concept of de-familiarization, viewers
will find pleasure between the real and twisted elements of the
image-flooded world we live in. An opening reception
from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, is open to the public. |