QUARANTINE PICKS
This week: "No reference to time, to space, to illness or fear"
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Each week a member of The Block's team offers selections that resonate with them at this moment. Today Corinne Granof, Academic Curator, writes:
"In these difficult times, many of us are seeking respite and distraction, sometimes we are seeking escape. I am drawn to the pure color, line, and form of non-representational works in our collection. There is no reference to time, to space, to illness or fear. The works are transportive and, for a moment, take us out of the moment, offering a two-dimensional surface for joy and beauty."
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1. Herbert Bayer (American, born Austria, 1900 - 1985), Untitled, from the series Seven Convolutions, 1948, Color lithograph, 17 7/8 in x 22 1/8 in, 1985.42.7
2. Stanley William Hayter (English, 1901 - 1988), Maternité Ailée, 1948, Color engraving, soft-ground etching and stencil relief-roll, 13 9/16 in x 7 15/16 in, 1999.18
3. Myron Kozman (American, 1916 - 2002), Abstraction #203, 1940, Color screenprint, 25 1/8 in x 17 11/16 in, 1996.88
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BLOCK STORIES
Docent Diaries: Objects with Energy
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The Block Museum docent program is made up of students from across Northwestern University who serve as the museum’s tour guides and ambassadors. In Spring 2020, the program continues online as students connect with one another, research objects in the collection, and help us look toward the future of the museum. This week we reached out to this team to ask:
What object in your current home/work/living space is inspiring or energizing you right now?
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THE BLOCK FROM HOME - NEW RELEASE
"Art is between us": Mania Akbari on capturing poetry, collaboration, and transformation on film [Audio]
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For me the most important thing is dialogue between two people. I believe that art is not with you and or me. Art is between us. Art is deep dialogue, deep conversation." – Mania Akbari in conversation with Hamid Naficy.
As part of its #MuseumFromHome series, The Block is proud to release a conversation with Iranian filmmaker Mania Akbari about her extraordinary personal, poetic film A Moon For My Father (2019).
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IN THE NEWS
Sound Off: In the Eye of the Beholder
Northwestern Magazine, Spring 2020
Northwestern Magazine spoke with The Block's Janet Dees, Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, for a feature considering perspectives on beauty and who gets to decide what is beautiful.
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"When I think about beauty, I think about this constellation of external qualities that are linked to eliciting positive emotions. I think about the feeling of pleasure, but I also think about what more can beauty do — what work it’s doing. Beauty can be one of those things creating that pause, that moment for us to take time and pay attention. Artists can use beauty to draw us in and point us to some deeper understanding about our social situation, our history."
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Chicago Cinema Workers Fund Helps Movie Theater Employees
Michael Philips, April 13, 2020
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The Chicago Tribune spoke with The Block's Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Curator of Media Art, about his work co-organizing the Chicago Cinema Workers Fund. "In addition to providing relief this is a way for all of us to materialize our commitment to cinemagoing in Chicago."
Also: Nina Li Coomes, Chicago Reader, "Support your local movie theater workers" (May 5, 2020)
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