A Site of Struggle - Exhibition Credits

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Inside A Site of Struggle


Lead support for the exhibition generously provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Major support provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This project is also supported in part by:

National Endowment for the Arts Bernstein Family Contemporary Art Fund Myers Foundations Block DEAI Fund Block Board of Advisors. William Spiegel and Lisa Kadin Alumnae of Northwestern University David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation Illinois Arts Council Agency Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation Lynne Jacobs The related publication is co-published by The Block Museum of Art and Princeton University Press and is supported by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund and the Sandra L. Riggs Publication Fund.


The Block wishes to thank the exhibition artists: Laylah Ali (American, b.1968)

George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882-1925) George Biddle (American 18851973) Elizabeth Catlett (American, 19152012) Darryl Cowherd (American, b. 1940) Bob Crawford (American, 19382015)

Ernest Crichlow (American, 19142005) David Antonio Cruz (American, b. 1974) Emory Douglas (American, b. 1943) Melvin Edwards (American, b. 1937) Theaster Gates (American, b. 1973)

Ken Gonzales-Day (American, b. 1964)

Wilmer Jennings (American, 19101990) Norman Lewis, (American, 19091979)

Dox Thrash (American, 1893-1965)

Molly Jae Vaughan (British, b. 1977) Lynd Ward (American, 1905–1985)

Kerry James Marshall (American, b. 1955)

Pat Ward Williams (American, b. 1948)

Isamu Noguchi (American, 19041988)

Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953)

Mendi + Keith Obadike (American, b. 1973)

Ida B. Wells (American, 1862-1931)

Howardena Pindell (American b. 1943) Carl and Karen Pope (American, b. 1961) Walter Quirt (American, 19021968)

Paul Rucker (American, b. 1968) Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960)

Walter White (American, 18931955) Hale Woodruff (American, 19001980)


Inside A Site of Struggle


The Block wishes to thank the following private and institutional lenders: Hill Harper

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Virginia Museum of Fine Art

Rodney M. Miller

Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

The Art Institute of Chicago

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

The Whitney Museum of American Art

Baltimore Museum of Art

The Newberry Library

Williams College Art Museum

Brooklyn Museum of Art

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Pritzker Legal Research Center

Alexander Gray Gallery

Richard J. Daley Library, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago

Jack Shainman Gallery

Amistad Research Center, Tulane University

Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Libraries The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum The Library of Congress

Garth Greenan Gallery Kenkeleba Gallery

Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago

Luis De Jesus Gallery

Special Collections, University of Michigan Library

Stephen Friedman Gallery

Spelman College Art Museum

Monique Meloche Gallery


And those who have contributed to the exhibition publication and scholarship through formal consultation and informal conversations: Princeton University Press

Leslie M. Harris

Lorelei Stewart

Lucia | Marquand

LaCharles Ward

Fred Wilson

Michelle Komie

La Tanya Autry

Rocío Aranda Alvarado

Kenneth Guay

Bridget Cooks

Amber Esseiva

Adrian Lucia

Noémi Michel

Miranda Lash

Kestrel Rundle

Shawn Michelle Smith

Meg Onli

Leah Finger

Mlondi Zondi

Lowery Stokes Sims

Tom Eykemans

Elisabeth Callihan

Arielle Weininger

Meghann Ney

Valerie Cassel Oliver

Jake Gagne

Kristin Swan

Ross Jordan

Liz Harnett

Kylie Escudero

Kymberly Pinder

Lisa Hodermarsky

Micah Musheno

Maurita Poole

Molleen Theodore

Sampada Aranke

Risa Puleo

Katie Wu

Courtney R. Baker

Veronica Roberts

Huey Copeland

Nicole Soukup


Inside A Site of Struggle


The Block wishes to thank our colleagues at Northwestern University: President Morton O. Shapiro

Department of Art, Theory, and Practice

Ivy Wilson

Hannah Feldman

Provost Kathleen Hagerty

Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy

Sheridan Tucker Anderson

Justin Mann

Provost Chief of Staff Jake Julia

Global Marketing and Communications

E. Patrick Johnson

Susan Manning

Office of Student Engagement

Chaunesti Webb

Mary Patillo

Vice President and Associate Provost for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion Robin R. Means Coleman

Student Affairs Leadership Team

Rikki Byrd

Miriam Petty

Office of Religious and Spiritual Life

Ashley Dennis

Krista Thompson

Office of Alumni Relations and Development

Nnaemeka Ekwelum

Alvin B. Tillery, Jr.

Former Provost Jonathan Holloway

Neighborhood and Community Relations

Candice Merritt

Natasha Trethewey

Northwestern Hillel

Angela Tate

Alejandra Uslenghi

Academic Residential Initiatives

Dave Davis

Charla Wilson

Campus Inclusion and Community

Shayla Butler

Rebecca Zorach

Social Justice Education

Nathalie Bouzaglo

Robert Brown

Multicultural Student Affairs

Heather Basarab

Chelsea O’Neil Karcher

Department of Art History

Counseling and Psychological Services

Peter Brace

Melina Gooray

Department of English

The Northwestern University Libraries

César Braga-Pinto

Department of Musicology

Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion

Joshua Chambers-Letson

Office of Equity

Harris Feinsod

Black Arts Consortium Black Professionals Network Department of African American Studies

Department of Performance Studies

Wirtz Center for Performing Arts The Faculty Senate

Ryan Dohoney


Our Evanston Community Advisors, community partners in Evanston and Chicago, and colleagues at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts: Evanston Community Advisors

Partners in Evanston and Chicago

Shorefront Legacy Center

Evanston Fight for Black Lives

YWCA Evanston/Northshore Equity Institute

NAACP Evanston/North Shore Branch

Dino Robinson

City of Evanston Youth and Young Adult Services

Tiffany McDowell LeAnn Jenkins Melissa Blount Fran Joy Rebeca Mendoza Rev. Michael Nabors Nathan Norman Robin Rue Simmons Angela Williams Corey Winchester

And for the guided meditation Joshua Bee Alafia

Students Organized Against Racism at Evanston Township High School Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.) The Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Love and Protect

A Long Walk Home Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Angie Dodson

Jennifer Jankauskas Sarah Kelly Cassandra Cavness Laura Bocquin


And our Communications colleagues at Northwestern University and Blue Water Communications :

Stephanie Kulke

Candice Harrison

Stephen Lewis

Amber Hendrickson

Michael Hines

Stephanie Miller Sara Stacy Lynnette Werning


Inside A Site of Struggle


The Block wishes to thank our Board of Advisors: Anu Aggarwal (SP KSM ’97)

Kristin Peterson Edwards (WCAS’92)

Craig Ponzio (Parent ’22)

Kim Allen-Niesen (Parent ’16, ’19)

Kate Ezra (TGS PhD ’83)

Irwin Press (WCAS ’59)

Mary Baglivo (MDL ’81)

James Geier

Richard M. Rieser, Jr. (SP SESP ’70)

Clare Bell (Parent ’22)

Lynn Hauser (FSM ’74 ’76 ’80) (SP FSM ’75 ’79 ’80)

Maria Bell (WCAS ’85)

Steven P. Henry (WCAS ’85)

Christine O. Robb, Chair Emerita (WCAS ’66) (SP WCAS ’66) (Parent ’93)

Daniel S. Berger

Rashid Johnson

Christine Bernstein (Parent ’17, ’23)

Cheryl Johnson-Odim, Co-chair (WCAS MA ’75 PhD ’78)

Selig D. Sacks (WCAS ’69) (Parent ’17)

Julie Bernstein (Parent ’24)

Ellen Philips Katz (WCAS ’70)

Stuart H. Bohart, Co-chair (WCAS ’89) (Parent ’25)

Zeynep Keyman (Parent ’07 ’12)

Priscilla Vail Caldwell (WCAS ’85)

James A. Klein (MDL ’68 ’69)

Stacey Cantor (WCAS ’90) (Parent ’20)

Dianne Loeb (KSM’80) (SP KSM ’81)

John Corbett (Comm PhD ’94)

Angela Lustig (SP MDL ’67 ’68)

Nicole Druckman (WCAS’92) (SP WCAS ’93)

R. Hugh Magill (SP Music ’86)

Sandra L. Riggs (Comm ’65)

Jean E. Shedd (KSM ’97) Diane Solomon (Parent ’10 ’15) Lisa Tananbaum (WCAS ’86)

Martha Tedeschi (WCAS PhD ’94) Ken Thompson (WCAS ’91) Sue Wilson (MDL ’70) (SP WCAS ’70 KSM ’74)


Our 2019-2022 Block Museum Student Associate Cohorts: Ayinoluwa Abegunde ’22

Janet Lee ’20

Mayán Alvarado-Goldberg ‘24

Kristine Liao ’20

Fiona Asokacitta ’21

Nicholas Liou ’20

Solome Bezuneh ‘24

Brooke Lummis ’20

Lois Biggs ’20

Mina Pembe Malaz ’21

Alexis Bullock ’20

Nozizwe Msipa ‘24

Carolina Carret ’23

Lennart Nielsen ’21

Vitoria Monteiro de Carvalho Faria ‘23

Giboom Joyce Park ’22

Erin Claeys ’21

Margeaux Rocco ’23

Meghan Clare Considine ’20

Ella Rubenstein ’20

Claire Corridon ’21

Bengi Rwabuhemba ‘23

Karan Gowda ’22

Joely Simon ’21

Chayda Harding ’22

Rory Kahiya Tsapayi ’21

Brianna Heath ’21

Maria Valencia ’20

Zeki Hirsch ‘24

Joyce Wang ’24

Hyohee Kim ’22

Bobby Yalam ’24

Katy Kim ‘23

Hank Yang ‘24

Isabella Ko ’20


The Block Museum Staff: Kathleen Bickford Berzock Lois Taylor Biggs

æryka hollis o’neil, Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, 2021–22

Lindsay Bosch

Elisa Miller Quinlan ’98

Kristina Bottomley

Emmanuel Ramos-Barajas

Lisa G. Corrin

Jenna Robertson

Sarah Dwider, Art History Graduate Fellow, 2021–22

Essi Rönkkö

Madie Giaconia ‘24

Joseph Scott

Corinne Granof

Rita Shorts

Malia Haines-Stewart

Dan Silverstein

Bethany Hill, Art History Graduate Fellow, 2020–21

Jeff Smith

América Salomón

Danielle Llevada ’23

Alisa Swindell, A Site of Struggle Curatorial Research Associate. Associate Curator of Photography at Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (former staff)

Rebecca Lyon

Melanie Garcia Sympson

Michael Metzger

Kate Hadley Toftness

Mark Leonhart

Amelia Mylvaganam ’23 Erin Northington


With special thanks to our Visitor Services, Exhibition Installation, and Registrarial teams:

Jack Benson Rocio Castillo Aaron Chatman Claire Dornbierer Adele Marchiando Warren G. Smith Jim Stauber Vincent Taylor Kenneth Watson

Lori Boyer Matt Byler Marian Frost Jane Jeffries Carl Kaufmann Steve Lalik Cass Meek Izah Ransohoff John Santoro Kelly Stachura


Inside A Site of Struggle


The curator also wishes to acknowledge the support of: Elise Archias

Jill Brienza

Nicole Awai

Lisa M. Gill

Naomi Beckwith

Dolores Dees

Erin Gilbert

Jason Dees

Nikki A. Greene Kristen Hughes

Carolyn Kastner

And the memories of:

Courtney J. Martin

Rev. Lloyd E. Dees

Lee Ann Norman

Daisy Mills

Geof Oppenheimer

Ryan Rice Cassandra Smith J. Michael Terry Yesomi Umolu

L. A. Williams Pamela Ayo Yetunde





January 26 – July 10, 2022

A Site of Struggle American Art against Anti-Black Violence Curated by Janet Dees, Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art with the assistance of Alisa Swindell, Curatorial Research Associate, Associate Curator of Photography, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College

Melvin Edwards Ida B.W., 1990, from the series Lynch Fragments (1963ongoing), welded steel, 13 x 13.8 x 9.8 inches



A Site of Struggle is grounded in crucial questions:

How has art has been used to protest, process, mourn, and memorialize anti-Black violence within the United States? How can art history help inform our understanding of the deep roots of racial violence?


Molly Jae Vaughan (British, born 1977) Lateisha “Teish” Green, 400 Block of Seymour Street, Syracuse, from Project 42, 2021; Inkjet and silkscreen printed fabric Created with the assistance of Anh Nguyen and Martina Duque.


The exhibition is made up of three sections organized thematically around different artistic approaches:

Works in Written on the Body explore how artists create subtler allusions to anti-Black violence, including the psychological impacts of racism.

Darryl Cowherd. Stop White Police from Killing Us-St. Louis, MO, c. 1966-67. Gelatin Silver Print. Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago


Dox Thrash (American, 1893-1965) After the Lynching, late 1930s Carborundum mezzotint printed in black ink on wove paper 6 1/16 × 8 7/8 inches, (plate); 8 1/16 × 11 13/16 inches (sheet) Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Kathleen Boone Samuels Memorial Fund, 2017.27

Emory Douglas (American, b. 1943) May 26, 1973, 1973 Ink wash and graphite pencil 20 x 14 inches Richard J. Daley Library, Special Collections & Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago


…this is the expression internal inertia that is sight and sound of which is rarely understood Is often not acknowledged Is mostly intellectualized by those drawn to veer in my direction black

Carl and Karen Pope (American, b. 1961) Palimpsest, 1998-99 Single-video, color with sound Courtesy of Carl and Karen Pope

striation and vocalization of a body of a self of a consciousness that dares to reverberate aloud without consent of those without participation of those fearful…but leering fearful…and defensive fearful…thus projecting flat imagery and ideology onto movement of my being…


Carl Pope Some of the Greatest Hits of the New York City Police Department: A Celebration of Meritorious Achievement in Community Service, 1994. engraved trophies. Dimensions variable Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Carl and Karen Pope, Christopher and Ann Stack, and A. W. Stuart. Installation view: An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017, 2017


The exhibition is made up of three sections organized thematically around different artistic approaches:

Artists in the section Abstraction and Affect employ conceptual strategies and varying degrees of abstraction to avoid literal representations of violence. ◦

Paul Rucker September 15, 1963-Birmingham, Alabama. From the Soundless Series, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.

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Paul Rucker, June 7, 1998-Jasper, Texas September 15, 1963-Birmingham, Alabama. From the Soundless Series, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.


Melvin Edwards Some Bright Morning, 1963, from the series Lynch Fragments (1963- ongoing), welded steel, 14 1/2 x 9 1/4 x 5 inches

Ida W.B., 1990, from the series Lynch Fragments (1963- ongoing), welded steel, 13 x 13.8 x 9.8 inches


Theaster Gates (American, b. 1973) In Case of Race Riot II, 2011 Wood, metal, hoses 35 x 32 x 6 inches Brooklyn Museum of Art

Minority Majority, 2012. Decommissioned firehoses, and vinyl on plywood. Whitney Museum of Art


The exhibition is made up of three sections organized thematically around different artistic approaches:

A Red Record explores how graphic depictions were repurposed to protest violence, such as lynchings.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States , 1895


An Art Commentary on Lynching. Exhibition Catalogue, February 15 –March 2, 1935 Arthur U. Newton Galleries (New York, N.Y.) The Newberry Library


Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), Death (alternative title, Lynched Figure), 1934 Wood, metal, rope, armature. 39 x 29 1/4 x 21 inches The Isamu Noguchi Foundation

Hale Woodruff (American, 1900-1980) By Parties Unknown, 1935 Linocut. 12 x 9 inches Collection of Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, Gift of Kathryn C. and Kenneth I. Chenault, 2001.1.006


Norman Lewis, (American, 1909-1979) Untitled (Police Beating),1943 Watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper 20 x 13 7/8 inches Courtesy of Rodney M. Miller Collection


Installation View- The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s, 1990. The New Museum

Pat Ward Williams (American, b. 1948) Accused/Blowtorch/Padlock, 1986 Collaged tar paper, oil pastel, found painted wood, found magazine, three gelatin silver prints with printed text on mylar overlay, and nails and staples, mounted on word panel 61 13/16 × 108 1/4 × 3 inches Whitney Museum of American Art, New York


Details Pat Ward Williams, Accused / Blowtorched/ Padlocked, Photo-collage, 1985


Kerry James Marshall, Heirlooms and Accessories, 2002. Three Ink-jet prints on paper in wooden artist's frame with rhinestones; Each: 51 x 46 inches; Framed: 57 x 53 x 3 inches Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago


Reginald Marsh, This is Her First Lynching, 1934. Drawing in black ink and Conté Crayon. Collection New York Public Library. Originally published in the New Yorker, September 8, 1934, reproduced in The Crisis in January 1935

Flyer for an anti-lynching mass meeting organized by the Philadelphia Committee for Race Relations of the Society of Friends. 1935. NAACP Archives, Library of Congress


Orientation text – respectful viewership and respect for other visitors

Moderate number of works.

Dedicated spaces for visual rest.

Controlled sightlines to the most graphic materials.

Dedicated space for quiet reflection.

Dedicated place for visitors to sit and write comments to encourage ongoing feedback.

Access to resources regarding campus and community services and social justice organizations

Care guide including guided meditation and collection connections


The themes, content, and format of the exhibition, as well as exhibition programming, resources, and structures of support were developed through formal consultation and informal conversations with an interdisciplinary group of established and emerging scholars and museum professionals, artists, Northwestern faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students, and Evanston communities members active in the fields of American history, art history, visual culture, and African Americans’ production and representation within these fields, and organizing around issues of racial justices.




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