January 13, 2004
February 2004 Visual Arts Calendar
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art: 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston
campus. The 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 WINTER AND SPRING EXHIBITIONS
“Lorna Simpson: 31,” Jan.
17 through March 28, Alsdorf Gallery. A grid of 31
small video screens tracks a month in the life of an unknown
woman as she moves through
her apartment, the street, the office and various recreational
spaces. Despite being circumscribed by her daily routine, Simpson’s
unknown woman is not always where we expect her to be. Simpson
has been challenging gender and racial stereotypes in her artwork
since the 1980s and this installation exposes the regulated structures
of social space by which all our lives are governed. This detailed
study of a woman’s daily life evokes both Jean-Luc Godard’s
film “Two or Three Things I Know About Her” and Chantal
Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080
Bruxelles.”
“American Expressionism: Art and Social Change,
1920s-1950s,” Jan. 30 through May 9, Main Gallery. This
exhibition critically re-examines artists of early 20th century
America and represents the blending of European and American
sensibilities in an art that used the innovations of modernism
to support those whose fortunes were crushed by circumstance,
backbreaking labor or brutality of war. Including more than 70
paintings, “American Expressionism” was organized
by the Columbus Museum of Art and includes the work of Ivan Albright,
Elaine de Kooning, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Franz Klein,
Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley, Jr. and Georgia O’Keeffe.
“Working Conditions: Depression-Era American Prints,” Jan.
30 through May 9, Print, Drawing and Photography Study Center. This
exhibition explores the conditions of urban industrial labor
during the Great Depression. Drawn from the Block Museum’s
collection of American prints from the 1930s, it will address
some of the critical issues facing the working class, ranging
from work hazards to the devastating impact of unemployment.
Curated by Northwestern art history graduate student Meredith
TeGrotenhuis, it will explore “how artists used stylistic
and compositional devices to heighten the emotive effect of their
subject matter, to elicit viewers’ empathy, and to raise
awareness of the relentless struggles of the working classes.”
“American Diorama: A Video Installation by Charles
Woodman,” Jan. 30 to May 9, Ellen Philips Katz and Howard
C. Katz Gallery/Classroom. Charles Woodman’s five-channel
video installation, “American Diorama,” follows a
long tradition of representing the American landscape, from large-scale
painting to panoramic photography. Shot on location across the
United States, Woodman’s video is both a document of and
a poetic response to the natural landscape, exercising the medium’s
capacity to portray time, movement and space. Woodman has been
working in the field of video art for more than 20 years.
ONGOING EXHIBITION
“Theo Leffmann: Weaving a Life into Art,” ongoing
exhibition re-opens Jan. 17, 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, Jan.
31 through May 9, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art. Docent-led
tours of the winter exhibitions will be held at 2 p.m. weekends
from Jan. 31 through May 9. Reservations are not required. To
schedule a private or group tour for your organization or school,
call the education department at (847) 491-4852.
PRINT ROOM TALK
Print Room Talk, 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, Print, Drawing
and Photography Study Center. In celebration of Black
History Month, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art Senior Curator
Debora Wood will select early 20th century prints by African
American artists in the Block Museum collection and discuss them
in the intimate setting of the museum’s Print, Drawing
and Photography Study Center. Space is limited. To make a reservation,
call (847) 491-4852. Admission is free.
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 Block 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 e-mail dittmargallery@northwestern.eduor
go to the Norris Center Web site at www.northwestern.edu/norris/dittmar.html.
FEBRUARY 2004 EXHIBITIONS
“Pandemic: Imaging AIDS,” Jan.
8 to Feb. 10, Dittmar Memorial Gallery. This provocative
exhibition by award-winning international photographers and
artists is aimed
at raising the awareness of the global AIDS crisis. It includes
essays by Rory Kennedy, Kofi Annan, Nadine Gordimer and Nan Richardson
and explores the experiences of five people living with AIDS
in different parts of the world. Rory Kennedy’s book, “Pandemic:
Facing AIDS,” is available for purchase in the Norris Center
Bookstore. The exhibition is made possible through the generous
sponsorship of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Home Box
Office, The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and Doctors of
the World USA. For more information go to www.pandemicfacingaids.org.
The opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, is
open to the public. Admission is free.
“Views of the American Food Chain” exhibition,
Feb. 12 through March 17, Dittmar Memorial Gallery. Chicago
food and restaurant photographer Eric Futran will present a series
of black and white photographs documenting scenes and people
involved in the business of bringing America’s food to
the table. The pictures were taken in such diverse venues as
a tortilla factory in San Antonio, a fishing boat on Long Island
Sound and a cornfield in southwestern Wisconsin. Chicago locations
include Gladys’ Restaurant on West Madison Street, the
Taste of Chicago and Maxwell Street’s last surviving hot
dog stand. An opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb.
17, is free and open to the public. |