SPRING 2018
A P RI L 1 4 – AU G U ST 5 , 2 01 8 H A N K
W I L L I S
T H O M A S :
UNBRANDED Hank Willis Thomas is “America’s great protest artist.” — The Guardian How do images in advertising campaigns perpetuate ideas about race, gender, and class? This exhibition brings together selections from two bodies of work by renowned American artist Hank Willis Thomas (b.1976): Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America 1968-2008 and Unbranded: A Century of White Women 1915-2015. Thomas removes slogans and product names from historical and contemporary advertisements, asking us to confront the impact of images on the popular imagination. Support provided by the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation; the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation; and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Experiments in Form: Sam Gilliam, Alan Shields, Frank Stella
JANUARY 13–JUNE 24, 2018
I Think We’re Alone Now: Art Theory and Practice MFA Thesis Exhibition
Inspired by the recent gift to the Block of the painting One (1970) by Sam Gilliam (b.1933), Experiments in Form features works by Gilliam, Alan Shields (1944-2005), and Frank Stella (b. 1936) as starting points to consider the ways in which artists were experimenting with the conventions of painting and printmaking in the 1960s and 1970s.
MAY 10–JUNE 24, 2018
James Britt, Joe Cassan, Kandis Friesen and Christopher Smith—2018 Master of Fine Arts degree candidates in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University—present their thesis projects, concluding two years of intensive artistic development. Support provided by the Norton S. Walbridge Fund; the Myers Foundations; the Jerrold Loebl Fund for the Arts; and the Alsdorf Endowment.
40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL 60208
FREE AND OPEN TO ALL blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
Front Left: Hank Willis Thomas, The natives will get restless, 1976/2015, [detail], 2015, digital chromogenic print, 40 x 40 3/9 inches. Front Right: Hank Willis Thomas, Bleach and Glow, 1975/2008 [detail], 2008, LightJet print, 36 x 27 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Back images: 1) Hank Willis Thomas, Bounce back to normal,1933/2015, [detail], 2015,. Digital chromogenic print, 44 9/16 × 40 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. 2) Christopher Smith, I Think We’re Alone Now, 2017. 3) Sam Gilliam, One [detail], 1970, acrylic on un-stretched canvas, 97 x 67 inches, Collection of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, from the Collection of Walter A. Netsch and Dawn Clark Netsch.
Wednesday, April 4, 4PM
The Block exhibition Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt has been highlighted in Newsweek, BBC News, Discovery Channel, Time Magazine, and more. Find out about the science, archaeology, cutting-edge digital technology, and sound design that made this exhibition a viral sensation during this open conversation with the interdisciplinary curatorial team. Paint the Eyes Softer is organized by Northwestern’s Block Museum in collaboration with the University’s McCormick School of Engineering, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, and School of Communications
OPENING PROGRAM
Unbranded: Hank Willis Thomas in Conversation with Huey Copeland Saturday, April 14, 2PM
Hank Willis Thomas has been called “America’s great protest artist.” Join the artist for an opening conversation on the ways in which his work has addressed advertising, race, gender, and class for the past 20 years. His talk will be followed by a conversation with Northwestern’s Huey Copeland, associate professor of Art History.
This program is supported by a Block Museum Board of Advisors gift in honor of Patrick J. Graziose and by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. Presented in conjunction with Northwestern Arts Circle’s “Arts on Equality” daylong festival.
CONVERSATION
Unlocking Sounds of the Past Wednesday, April 25, 6PM
Interweaving historical research, poetic storytelling, and innovative audio processing, artist Dario Robleto and media historian Patrick Feaster collaborate to discover the unexpected sounds of our shared past. Robleto’s work has included making audible the world’s first heartbeat recordings, traced in soot from 19th century flames. KEYNOTE TALK
Xandra Ibarra: Dwelling Somewhere In Between Friday, April 27, 6PM
Jill Caskey, Associate Professor of Medieval Art, University of Toronto, will discuss the holdings of the great pilgrimage church San Nicola on Italy’s southeast coast and how their presentation has been (re)conceptualized over the course of seven decades. OPENING + RECEPTION
I Think We’re Alone Now Thursday, May 10, 6PM
Please join us to celebrate the opening of I Think We’re Alone Now, the 2018 Art Theory and Practice MFA Thesis Exhibition, featuring James Britt, Joe Cassan, Kandis Friesen, and Christopher Smith. Co-organized by the Block Museum and the Department of Art Theory and Practice
40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 (847) 491-4000
CINEMA SELECTIONS
CINEMA SERIES
Raising Bertie
HANK WILLIS THOMAS: DIFFERENT IMAGE
(Margaret Byrne, 2016,102 min)
Thursday, April 5, 7PM
This new documentary about black teenagers fighting to stay afloat in rural North Carolina maintains the urgent, socially-engaged tradition of Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams). IN PERSON: filmmaker Margaret Byrne Presented with Northwestern University’s Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Branding Quality TV
Wednesday, May 16, 6PM
Safe
This screening will showcase cameraless, abstract and handpainted films that resonate formally with the works on view in the exhibition, Experiments in Form: Sam Gilliam, Alan Shields, Frank Stella. IN PERSON: filmmaker Madison Brookshire
Chameleon Street
Friday, April 6, 7PM
The Wandering Eye: Canyon Cinema in the World
Thursday, April 12, 7PM
How do representations of women of color serve to “brand” TV networks and film studios? Join professors Aymar Jean Christian and Miriam Petty as they screen clips of recent critically acclaimed shows like Insecure and Queen Sugar and discuss how they fit into strategies of major media brands. This screening will also include the screening of a Chicago-made indie TV series developed by Christian.
Ming of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air
DEPARTMENT OF ART THEORY AND PRACTICE VISITING ARTIST LECTURE
Organized by the Northwestern Image Lab and sponsored by the Department of French and Italian, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, and the Department of RTVF
Giuseppe Penone
(Phillip Warnell, 2014, 71 min)
Thursday, April 26, 7PM
This experimental documentary tells the story of New Yorker Antoine Yates, who shared his Harlem high-rise apartment with Ming, a 500-pound tiger, and Al, a 7-foot long alligator, for five years. IN PERSON: filmmaker Phillip Warnell
Western
(Valeska Grisebach, 2017,119 min)
Tuesday, May 29, 7PM For forty years, renowned Italian artist Giuseppe Penone has explored and expanded our understanding of sculpture through the interplay between the human body, nature, and art. Join this founding member of the Arte Povera movement for an unforgettable dialogue on the innate sculptural qualities of natural materials and the deep patterns of growth and time.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON TOURS April 8–June 10, 3PM Join the Block Museum’s student docents for a deeper look into the ideas and themes at play in the current exhibitions. These free, informal tours can be tailored to the questions and interests of those attending. Tours are free and typically last 45 minutes.
The subversions of commercial imagery in the Unbranded exhibition serve as a launching pad for this series, featuring films that explore and dismantle socially imposed images of race, class, gender, and sexuality. A mixture of mainstream, independent, and experimental cinema, these films share strategies for creating disobedient, selfdetermined representations.
Experiments in Form: Cameraless, Hand-Painted and Abstract Films
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of a legendary distributor of experimental film, this program showcases independent American filmmakers who made films abroad.
LECTURE
SPRING 2018
Join Oakland-based performance artist Xandra Ibarra (a.k.a. La Chica Boom) for a conversation on her work celebrating the imperfect borders between racial, gender, and queer identities. This talk is the keynote of the 2018 Northwestern Performance Studies graduate student conference and performance festival In Motion: Performance and Unsettling Borders.
Wednesday, May 2, 5PM
BLOCK CINEMA
Portrait in the Making: A Behind-theScenes Look at Paint the Eyes Softer
@nublockmuseum
CLOSING PROGRAM
Person, Place, Thing: Conceptualizing Taxonomy at San Nicola, Bari, ca. 1300
BLOCKMUSEUM.NORTHWESTERN.EDU
All programs are free and open to all.
DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY WARNOCK LECTURE SERIES
ALWAYS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday: 10AM–5PM Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 10AM–8PM Free parking on weekends and after 4PM on weekdays
SPRING 2018
Friday, May 11, 7PM
A simmering, critically acclaimed drama that negotiates questions of power, language, and labor between German migrant workers and Bulgarian townspeople.
Spettacolo (Jeff Malmberg and Chris Shellen, 2017, 91 min)
Friday, May 18, 7PM
A town in Tuscany turns their own lives into a yearly theatrical performance and confronts the challenges of change in this moving new documentary.
NU DOCS
Northwestern University’s MFA in Documentary Media presents the thesis films of its third graduating class.
Program 1 Wednesday, June 13, 7PM Program 2 Thursday, June 14, 7PM Program 3 Friday, June 15, 7PM
Friday, April 13, 7PM (Todd Haynes, 1995, 119 min) Thursday, April 19, 7PM (Wendell B. Harris Jr., 1989, 94 min)
They Live
Thursday, May 31, 7PM (John Carpenter, 1988, 94 min)
A Different Image / Perfect Image?
Friday, June 1, 7PM (Alile Sharon Larkin, 1982, 52 min) (Maureen Blackwood, 1988, 30 min) IN PERSON: Jacqueline Stewart, Univ. of Chicago
WATCHING THE DETECTIVES
Technological advances have put video cameras in millions of pockets, but the American justice system too often remains opaque to outside scrutiny. Documentary filmmakers take on this challenge in this film series pairing vital recent films with classic and archival works.
True Conviction
Thursday, May 3, 7PM (Jamie Meltzer, 2017, 84 min) IN PERSON: filmmaker Jamie Meltzer Sponsored by the MFA in Documentary Media program, the Center on Wrongful Convictions, and Medill School of Journalism, with support from the Kaplan Institute for the Humanities
Red Squad and Tearoom
Thursday, May 17, 7PM (Pacific St. Film Collective, 1972, 45 min) (William E. Jones, 2007, 56 min)
Do Not Resist
Saturday, May 19, 1PM (Craig Atkinson, 2016, 72 min)
LIFE ON THE BORDER: THE CINEMA OF BAHMAN GHOBADI A series of screenings and discussions with one of Iran’s leading filmmakers. IN PERSON: filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi
A Time for Drunken Horses
Wednesday, May 23, 7PM (2000, 80 min)
Turtles Can Fly
Thursday, May 24, 7PM (2004, 98 min)
No One Knows About Persian Cats Friday, May 25, 7PM (2009, 106 min)
Presented by the Middle East and North African Studies Program and Block Cinema and made possible by the Iranian American Fund for Cultural Programming