Curatorial Report

Any look back at 2020 will inevitably recount a tale of two realities, one before and one after the springtime arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While in the first half of the academic year our curatorial program was presented largely within the walls of the museum, COVID-19 forced us to identify and distill the essential elements of the program that could be transferred to the virtual realm. Since mid-March we have continued our curatorial program remotely, and while we look forward with anticipation to the day when we can again carry out our mission by facilitating direct experiences with works of art, we remain committed to identifying and sharing many facets of our work through virtual platforms.

Designated a year of global modernisms, we presented three major loan exhibitions that revealed the artistic, political, and social movements of the mid-20th century from multiple vantage points. The exhibitions Pop América: 1965-1975 and Modernisms: Iranian, Turkish, and Indian Highlights from NYU’s Abby Weed Grey Collection featured many artworks never before seen in Chicago. Modernisms was presented alongside Terence Gower: Ciudad Moderna, the Block debut of this important work which was a 2016 gift to the museum. Our focus on global modernisms was also amplified by multiple Block Cinema screenings, including the series Ism, Ism, Ism: Experimental Cinema in Latin America, and Morning will Come: Modernity in Indian Cinema,

The continued acquisition of artworks selected to broaden The Block’s collection and strengthen its relevance to teaching and learning across campus was among the areas of strategic focus for the year. 2020 notable acquisitions included works by Andrea Carlson, Rosalie Favell, Sky Hopinka, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed. Major gifts included Federico Solmi’s nine-channel video installation The Great Farce (2017-19); Dawoud Bey’s monumental silver gelatin photograph Untitled #17 (Forest) from the series Night Coming Tenderly, Black; and a third gift from Richard and Jackie Hollander of 41 photographs by the renowned twentieth century photographer Edward Steichen, making The Block among the most important repositories for the artist’s work.

In Spring 2020 the museum undertook its first student-led acquisition. Students in the Spring Quarter Art History course Collecting/Critique, which was taught remotely by Professor Hannah Feldman and Block staff members Essi Rönkkö and Kate Hadley-Toftness, selected Undertone #17, #23, #51 (2017-2018), from the series Undertones by Maya Greene, to be added to the museum’s collection.

In June the museum released a free mobile web app for The Block’s groundbreaking touring exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa, which can be viewed in English, Arabic, and French. The exhibition’s April 2020 opening at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art was postponed until the Fall, with the exhibition extended there through July 2021.

– Kathleen Bickford Berzock,

Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs

Pop América with view of Antonio Berni, Mediodía (Noontime), 1976.