The Block Museum of Art - Fall 2018 Season

FA L L 2018 season

What’s inside

The Block?

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What’s inside The Block? It depends on how you look.

You may notice that we have a new look. Like the experience of art itself, our playful new “B” is a matter of perception. It is open-ended, and invites viewers to look twice and to find meaning for themselves. Making creative use of the Northwestern University fonts and colors, we have embraced a design that celebrates the spirit of openness that is a core value of the museum. At The Block we are open to dialogue, open to new ideas, and open to new ways of looking at art and at ourselves.

HOURS Mon. Tues./Sat./ Sun. Wed./ Thurs./ Fri.

GETTING HERE CLOSED 10 AM - 5 PM 10 AM - 8 PM

Location

FREE ADMISSION

The Block Museum of Art is located at 40 Arts Circle Drive on the southeastern portion of Northwestern’s Evanston campus, near the lake and Sheridan Road.

Admission to exhibitions, screenings, and programming is always free and open to all.

Parking

RSVP Let us know you are coming! The Block Museum maintains a suggested RSVP list for public program offerings: bit.ly/BlockRSVP Event entry is first-come, first-served, and RSVP does not guarantee entry if capacity is reached.

Guest parking is available at the Segal Visitors Center Garage (1847 Campus Drive, Evanston.) Parking is FREE after 4 PM on weekdays and all day on weekends. All other times parking is $8. The Arts Circle Drive is open to vehicles, and patrons with disabilities will find an accessible location for pick-up and drop off directly in front of the museum.

Public Transportation

CONTACT US Phone 847. 491. 4000 Email block-museum@northwestern.edu

The Block Museum is a 15–20 minute walk from the Davis and Foster stations on the CTA’s Purple Line. The Davis station has an elevator. On the Metra, the museum is a 15– 20 minute walk from the Union-Pacific North Davis station. @nublockmuseum

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Inside The Block you’ll find... our featured exhibition, Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio, gallery conversations and talks, classic and contemporary cinema, and so much more.

Millie Goldsholl, Morton Goldsholl, Wayne Boyer, Larry Janiak, and Dick Marx, Still from Kimberly-Clark Corporation “Faces and Fortunes,” 1959, 16 mm film, 12:48 minutes. Mort and Millie Goldsholl Collection, 1942–1980, Chicago Film Archives.

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EXHIBITIONS

Goldsholl Design Associates, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Kleenex X-Periments “Sneeze,” c. 1960, 16 mm film, 6:40 minutes. Mort and Millie Goldsholl Collection, 1942–1980, Chicago Film Archives.

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Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio September 18 – December 9, 2018 Main Gallery In the 1950s, Chicago-based design firm Goldsholl Design Associates made a name for itself with innovative “designs-in-film.” Headed by Morton and Millie Goldsholl, the studio produced television spots, films, trademarks, corporate identities, and print advertisements for international corporations like Kimberly-Clark, Motorola, and 7-Up. Although they were compared to some of the most celebrated design firms of the day, the Goldsholls and their designers are relatively unknown today. The Block Museum’s exhibition Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio will reexamine the innovative work of Goldsholl Design Associates and its national impact.

The Goldsholls attended Chicago’s School of Design and were inspired by its founder, the artist and designer László Moholy-Nagy. Deeply influenced by Moholy’s teachings and Bauhaus approach, with its ethos of aesthetic experimentation and social engagement, Morton and Millie fostered a similar attitude among designers working in their firm.

Featuring films, television ads, and other moving images alongside designed objects, print advertisements, trademarks, photographs, and drawings, Up is Down will be the first exhibition to illuminate the distinctive brand of motion pictures that Chicago became known for at midcentury and the ways the city served as an influential testing ground for ideas connecting art, industry, design, and film. The exhibition, its related publication, and public programs will provide new context for understanding Chicago as a unique site for experimental art, design, and film that eventually gained international currency.

This exhibition is presented in conjunction with Art Design Chicago, a spirited celebration of the unique and vital role Chicago plays as America’s crossroads of creativity and commerce. Spearheaded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, this citywide partnership of more than 75 cultural organizations explores Chicago’s art and design legacy and continued impact with more than 30 exhibitions and hundreds of events throughout 2018.

Up is Down is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and The Mary and Leigh Block Endowment.

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EXHIBITIONS

Paul Chan: Happiness (finally) after 35,000 years of civilization July 17 – November 4, 2018 Alsdorf Gallery Paul Chan is an American artist, activist, writer, and publisher. His work addresses relationships between politics and aesthetics, philosophy and popular culture, art and grassroots activism.

These concerns figure prominently in Happiness (finally) after 35,000 years of civilization, Chan’s first major artwork, which was started in 1999 and completed in 2003. A 17-minute looped Flash animation, Happiness is inspired as much by the history of utopian thought and the US invasion of Iraq as by Web 1.0 banner ads. Completed as part of his MFA degree at Bard College, Happiness also reflects Chan’s formative undergraduate years at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he first encountered the work of Chicago-based, self-taught artist Henry Darger.

Darger’s beautiful and violent imagery runs throughout Happiness, which also draws on the ideas of the radical 19th-century French socialist Charles Fourier. Chan animates these sources across an ultra-wide screen, depicting cycles of ecstasy and carnage, hope and despair. An editioned work, Happiness is part of a 2016 gift of 68 works of contemporary art to The Block Museum from art collector, philanthropist, and software innovator Peter Norton.

Funded through support from the Bernstein Family Contemporary Art Fund, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and The Mary and Leigh Block Endowment.

RELATED PROGRAMS Conversation: The Debt Is Infinite: Paul Chan and His Outliers, Wednesday, October 3, 6 PM Cinema: Baghdad in No Particular Order (Paul Chan, 2003), Thursday, October 25, 7 PM

Paul Chan, Happiness (finally) after 35,000 years of civilization (detail). Courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali Gallery.

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Break a Rule: Ed Paschke’s Art and Teaching September 18 – December 9, 2018 Katz Gallery Ed Paschke (1939–2004) often began his classes with the assignment to “break a rule.” A bold innovator who enjoyed disrupting conventions, Paschke mentored students for over two and a half decades at Northwestern University, coaching them to think outside the box. His work and his teaching were devoted to experimentation, playful exploration of the human experience, and capturing “every manner of humanity.” This exhibition is one of the first to consider Paschke’s work as an educator, foregrounding his printmaking alongside self-produced pedagogical materials, to offer a new perspective on a well-known Chicago artist.

Paschke, who exhibited with the Chicago Imagists and gained recognition in the 1960s and ’70s, is known for a range of subjects and characters often considered to be from the social margins.

He also encouraged his students to get out of their comfort zone. The diversity and interaction he modeled was in his words “the very pulse of life,” and his attempt to capture it was central to his work. He often said that people loved his work or hated it, and either reaction was fine with him—as long as they were not indifferent.

Funded through support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the Norton S. Walbridge Fund. Works in the exhibition are from the collections of the Northwestern University Library Archives and The Block Museum of Art with generous loans from Marc Paschke and Sharon Paschke.

RELATED PROGRAMS Opening Conversation: Break a Rule, Wednesday, October 10, 6 PM Gallery Talk: Inside the Exhibition Break a Rule, Thursday, November 29, 6 PM

Ed Paschke, Ponderosa (detail), 1991. Color lithograph on paper. The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University,

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Morton Goldsholl, Untitled Light Painting, c. 1944, Glass slide collage with 35 mm slide ďŹ lm and perforated paper teleprinter tape. Courtesy of the Goldsholl Family. Digital reproduction by Jan Tichy.

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“Write, draw, paint, design, film, compose, play.

Do it your own way. Do it for others and for yourself. But do it.”

-Morton Goldsholl

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PRO G R A M S

OPENING DAY

Up is Down Opening Celebration Saturday, October 6 Hands-on Design Lab The Block Museum of Art, 10:30 AM – 1 PM Drop by The Block for an all-ages activity inspired by the exhibition Up is Down. Join artist Jesse Malmed to play with light and images as part of a collective animation project that celebrates experimentation and collaboration.

“Improvisation, experimentation, social justice: all these things form the spine of what comes out of Chicago.”

– Thomas Dyja

Only in Chicago: Opening Conversation with Author Thomas Dyja, The Third Coast McCormick Auditorium, Norris Student Center, 2 PM In the 1950s, Chicago-based design firm Goldsholl Design Associates made a name for itself with innovative “designs-in-film.” Combining Bauhaus-influenced aesthetics with commercial advertising success, the firm exemplified the way in which Chicago served as the nation’s design capital and a crucial testing ground for ideas connecting art, industry, design, and film.

Thomas Dyja, third-generation Chicagoan and author of the award-winning The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream, will discuss why Chicago was fertile ground for the Goldsholls’ work — and explore the mid-century circumstances that united culture and industry across the city. In conversation with Dyja, exhibition curators Amy Beste and Corinne Granof will share insight into the groundbreaking work of the Goldsholl Design Associates, tracing its artistic influences, including those of artist and designer László Moholy-Nagy, as well as the firm’s lasting design legacy.

Co-sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; presented in conjunction with Art Design Chicago.

Goldsholl Design Associates, Slide of proposal model for US Pavilion of the 1964 World’s Fair, c. 1963. Special Collections and University Archives, University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago.

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CONVERSATION

The Debt is Infinite: Paul Chan and His Outliers Wednesday, October 3, 6 PM Paul Chan’s landmark 2003 digital animation Happiness (finally) after 35,000 years of civilization draws on the themes and iconography of one of Chicago’s most celebrated self-taught artists, Henry Darger. Lynne Cooke, Senior Curator for Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery in Washington, will situate Chan’s approach to Darger within a longer history of the changing relationship between modern and self-taught art, which she explored in her landmark exhibition Outliers and American Vanguard Art (touring to LACMA in November 2018). Exhibition co-curator James J. Hodge, Assistant Professor of English and Humanities, will then reflect on these distinctions in an era when new media platforms have eroded the boundaries of what constitutes avant-garde and folk art. Block Media Arts Curator and exhibition co-curator Michael Metzger will join Cooke and Hodge to address the key themes of narrative and social transformation that bind Chan and Darger.

Presented in partnership with the Arts Club of Chicago.

OPENING CONVERSATION

Break a Rule: Ed Paschke’s Art and Teaching Wednesday, October 10, 6 PM Chicago painter Ed Paschke (1939–2004) often began his classes by prompting his students to “break a rule.” A bold innovator who enjoyed disrupting conventions, Paschke mentored students for over two and a half decades at Northwestern University and continually coached them to think outside the box. Celebrate Paschke’s art and teaching through the lenses of his former colleagues and students—including insights into Paschke’s work, his circle (the Hairy Who and Chicago Imagists), and his reputation in Chicago and beyond. Artists Zachary Buchner, William Conger, Antonia Contro, and Anna Kunz discuss their personal experiences with Paschke as an innovative educator in a conversation moderated by Block Museum Graduate Fellow and exhibition curator Beth Derderian, doctoral candidate in Anthropology.

Presented in partnership with the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice.

Ed Paschke, from the Pharaoh series, ca. 2001. Screenprints. On loan from Marc Paschke and Sharon Paschke.

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PRO G R A M S

CONVERSATION

Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System Thursday, October 18, 6 PM Join us for a moderated conversation with Chicago artists committed to justice and to using art as a mechanism for change. Mary Patten of Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, Kevin Kaempf of Lucky Pierre, and Sarah Ross of Prison and Neighborhood Arts Project will speak to their work both as individuals and in collaboration. These artist talks will be followed by dialogue moderated

by Risa Puleo, PhD Candidate in Art History and curator of the exhibition Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System, currently on view at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and including work by these artists/collectives and 40 others nationally.

This event kicks off the annual Imagining America gathering on art and justice, Transformative Imaginations: Decarceration and Liberatory Futures, taking place in Chicago October 19 – 21.

Dread Scott, Wanted, 2017. Community-based project: Wanted posters, community participants, public forum, forensic sketch session, HD video documentation, pigment prints. Courtesy of the artist.

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ARTIST TALK

Ellen Lupton: Design is Art That People Use Wednesday, October 24, 6 PM Inspired by the exhibition Up is Down, Ellen Lupton, Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, will address the evolving relationship between artistic experimentation and commercial design. In the 1950s and ’60s the Goldsholl design firm’s creative experiments with light and media found their ways to lucrative commercials and patents. Lupton will consider this history of design innovation and the state of experimentation and design today focusing on the commercials and projects that artists create for the ubiquitous digital screens around us. Thinking about how rapid digital culture blurs the boundaries of art and commerce, this program addresses how current designers shape not only what but how we see.

Co-sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; presented in conjunction with Art Design Chicago, and in partnership with Northwestern’s Segal Design Institute and Medill Integrated Marketing and Communications.

Ellen Lupton’s recent publications.

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PRO G R A M S

CONVERSATION

Politics of the Studio: Race and Design in Mid-Century America Thursday, November 1, 6 PM Using the uniquely cosmopolitan space of the Goldsholl studio as a point of departure— including the long-term position of African-American designer Thomas Miller at the firm—this conversation will address issues of authorship, representation, and racial inclusion (or lack thereof) in design and advertising workplaces in the 1950s and 1960s. Chris Dingwall, historian and curator of Race and the Design of American Life: African Americans in Twentieth-Century Commercial Art, will address Thomas Miller’s legacy as a designer and his role in the Goldsholl studio. Korey Garibaldi, Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, will offer literary and historical context for black cultural professionals and best-selling authors who were at the forefront of racial integration following World War II. Co-sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; presented in conjunction with Art Design Chicago. This program is concurrent to The Designs of African American Life, a symposium taking place at the Chicago Cultural Center, November 2–3.

Photograph of (from left to right) Fred Ota, Thomas Miller, and John Weber, c. 1963. Courtesy of the Goldsholl family.

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GALLERY TALK

See the Light: Inside the Exhibition Up is Down Wednesday, November 7, 6 PM Join exhibition curators Amy Beste and Corinne Granof, and Greg Holderfield, Director of the Segal Design Institute, as they share their perspectives on the design of Morton and Millie Goldsholl. This gallery talk will include insight into the Goldsholls’ studio practice, investigating how play and experimentation inspired their commercial work.

Co-sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; presented in conjunction with Art Design Chicago, and in partnership with Northwestern’s Segal Design Institute.

DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY WARNOCK LECTURE SERIES

Rachel Haidu: The Shape of the Self Wednesday, November 14, 5 PM Join Rachel Haidu, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Rochester, for a discussion of her scholarship focusing on national identity and the public sphere, and her current research on resurgent notions of selfhood in contemporary art. Haidu’s first book, The Absence of Work: Marcel Broodthaers, 1964–1976, was published by October Books (2010).

Presented by the Department of Art History.

GALLERY TALK

Every Manner of Humanity: Inside the Exhibition Break a Rule Thursday, November 29, 6 PM A bold innovator who enjoyed disrupting conventions, Chicago artist Ed Paschke (1939–2004) mentored students for over two and a half decades to think outside the box. Join exhibition curator and Block Museum Graduate Fellow Beth Derderian, doctoral candidate in Anthropology, for a gallery tour and discussion of Paschke’s teaching and artistic practices.

Goldsholl Design Associates, 7Up billboard design for “See the Light” Campaign, c. 1975. Courtesy of Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.

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CA L E N DA R

September 27

Thursday

7 PM

CINEMA Made in Chicago: Rogers Park (2017)

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA The Arboretum Cycle (2017-18)

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Thursday

7 PM

CINEMA New Docs: Minding the Gap (2018)

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA Designers in Film: Films by the Goldsholls and Company

p. 26

p. 26

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Wednesday

7 PM

CINEMA Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

October 3

Wednesday

6 PM

CONVERSATION The Debt is Infinite: Paul Chan and His Outliers

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Thursday

7 PM

CINEMA Mexico: The Frozen Revolution (1973) Raymundo (2003)

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA The Traitors (1973) Me matan si no trabajo y si trabajo me matan (1974)

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Saturday

10:30 AM

OPENING DAY Up is Down Opening Celebration Hands-on Design Lab

2 PM

p. 22

p. 22

p. 10

Only in Chicago: Opening Day Conversation with Author Thomas Dyja, The Third Coast

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Wednesday

6 PM

CONVERSATION Break a Rule: Ed Paschke’s Art and Teaching

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p. 11

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Thursday

6 PM

CONVERSATION Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA Designers in Context: Film, Advertising, and Modernism

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Saturday

1 PM

CINEMA Color and Line: Mid-Century Animation

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Wednesday

6 PM

ARTIST TALK Ellen Lupton: Design is Art That People Use

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Thursday

7 PM

CINEMA Baghdad in No Particular Order (2003)

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA Light Play: Film and the Bauhaus

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p. 20

p. 25

p. 12

p. 20

p. 21

p. 13

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p. 21

November 1

Thursday

6 PM

CONVERSATION Politics of the Studio: Race and Design in Mid-Century America

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA Eve of the Future: Women and Independent Film Before 1960

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Saturday

11 AM

FAMILY PROGRAM Tales of Art at The Block

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Wednesday

6 PM

GALLERY TALK See the Light: Inside the Exhibition Up is Down

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Thursday

7 PM

CINEMA Rear Window (1954)

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA Distant Constellation (2017)

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Saturday

1 PM &

CINEMA Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA Born in Flames (1983)

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Thursday

6 PM

GALLERY TALK Every Manner of Humanity: Inside Break a Rule

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Friday

7 PM

CINEMA New Docs: Call Her Ganda (2018)

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p. 15

p. 21 p. 27

p. 30

December p. 15

p. 23

p. 27

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Saturday

11 AM

FAMILY PROGRAM Tales of Art at The Block

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Thursday

7 PM

CINEMA Night of the Comet (1984)

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p. 25

EXHIBITIONS September 18 - December 9

3:30 PM

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Wednesday

5 PM

LECTURE Rachel Haidu: The Shape of the Self

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Thursday

7 PM

CINEMA Testament (1983)

p. 27

Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio p. 5

p. 15

Break a Rule: Ed Paschke’s Art and Teaching p. 7

July 17 - November 4 Paul Chan: Happiness (finally) after 35,000 years of civilization p. 25

p. 6

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We believe deeply in the capacity of art encounters to catalyze thinking about what is at stake for us in our lives.

-Lisa Graziose Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Director, The Block Museum

Museum guests visit exhibition Carrie Mae Weems: Ritual and Revolution in fall 2017.

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“Write, draw, paint, design, film, compose, play.

Do it your own way. Do it for others and for yourself. But do it.”

-Morton Goldscholl THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART

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CINEMA

Designers in Film: The Cinematic World of the Goldsholls This film series complements and extends The Block’s exhibition Up is Down with five programs of films produced by Chicago-based designer-filmmakers Morton and Millie Goldsholl and their collaborators, influencers, and contemporaries. Presenting classic and rarely-seen shorts across a wide spectrum of animated, experimental, and commercial film, Designers in Film illuminates the Goldsholls’ place within the innovative atmosphere of 20th-century cinematic exploration.

Information Machine, 1958

Designers in Film: Films by the Goldsholls and Company Friday, October 12, 7 PM In their advertising and personal films like Night Driving (1957), Morton and Millie Goldsholl devised exciting and adventurous forms of image-making—as did their employees and collaborators.

This program surveys some of the Goldsholls’ most delightful shorts, along with lesser seen works by Goldsholl studio members. Exhibition curator Amy Beste will join Goldsholl-affiliated filmmakers Wayne Boyer, Byron Grush, Paul Jessel, and Marie Cenkner to talk about their work, their experiences with the Goldsholls, and their place at the cutting edge of experimental screen culture in Chicago.

Designers in Context: Film, Advertising, and Modernism Friday, October 19, 7 PM The mid-century love affair between advertising, design, and modernism united the Goldsholl studio with peers in the vanguard of film and television from coast to coast. This program gathers together dazzling experimental and commissioned films by such celebrated figures as Charles and Ray Eames, Jim Henson, and Saul Bass, along with rarely-screened gems by innovators Fred Mogubgub and Francis Thompson. Lynn Spigel, Frances Willard Professor of Screen Cultures, will introduce the program, situating the Goldsholls within the history explored in her book TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television.

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Color and Line: Mid-Century Animation Saturday, October 20, 1 PM Challenging and creative films like 1969’s Up Is Down put director Millie Goldsholl at the vanguard of animation during a period of renewal and discovery in the form. This program surveys some of her influences and peers, showcasing styles that vary from Norman McLaren’s visionary experiments in direct-to-film animation and pixilation to Faith and John Hubley’s beautifully crafted and humanistic narrative shorts. Award-winning animator and Associate Professor of Radio, Television, and Film, Eric Patrick will share his insights into these bold, inventive works.

Light Play: Film and the Bauhaus Friday, October 26, 7 PM The Goldsholls studied at Chicago’s School of Design in the 1940s under renowned artist and educator László Moholy-Nagy, who brought the methods and principles of the German Bauhaus to the US. Known for architecture and design, faculty at the Bauhaus also explored the kinetic possibilities of projected light and film, a legacy that deeply influenced School of Design students in Chicago. Laura Frahm, Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University, will present her ongoing research on film at the Bauhaus, followed by a screening of key films by Moholy, Hans Richter, and others, and an excerpt from an upcoming documentary about the New Bauhaus with filmmaker Alysa Nahmias in person.

Eve of the Future: Women and Independent Film Before 1960 Friday, November 2, 7 PM In 1959, Millie Goldsholl curated the film program for the International Design Conference in Aspen, which pointedly included the most important female voices in independent cinema at that time. This screening brings together many of their vital contributions to experimental, animated, and documentary film, including works by Shirley Clarke, Maya Deren, Mary Ellen Bute, and other trailblazers who challenged the status quo in advance of second-wave feminism. With an introduction by Jennifer Wild, Associate Professor of Cinema at the University of Chicago.

Tender Game, 1958

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CINEMA

Compañero: The Radical Life and Films of Raymundo Gleyzer Between 1963 and 1974, Argentinian insurgent filmmaker Raymundo Gleyzer made over a dozen documentaries and one narrative feature film, each one a powerful commentary on Latin American political and social realities. With his organization “Cine de la Base,” Gleyzer made and distributed films in pursuit of revolutionary change—until he was kidnapped in 1976 by Argentina’s military dictatorship and disappeared. Over two nights, The Block will screen the director’s most radical and enduring films, joined by Juana Sapire, Gleyzer’s collaborator and biographer.

This event is part of a touring retrospective of Raymundo Gleyzer’s films, organized by film critic and programmer Steve Macfarlane.

Raymundo Gleyzer filming Mexico: The Frozen Revolution.

Mexico: The Frozen Revolution Raymundo Gleyzer, 1973, Argentina/USA Raymundo Ernesto Ardito & Virna Molina, 2003, Argentina

84 min 52 min

Thursday, October 4, 7 PM One of Gleyzer’s major works, Mexico: The Frozen Revolution also represents a high point of Latin American political cinema, offering both an ingeniously told history of the Mexican Revolution and a scathing indictment of the political corruption and bureaucracy that betrayed its ideals.

Ardito and Molina’s 2003 documentary profiles Gleyzer’s life and legacy through rare footage and interviews with collaborators and comrades.

The Traitors Raymundo Gleyzer, 1973, Argentina Me matan si no trabajo y si trabajo me matan Raymundo Gleyzer, 1974, Argentina

113 min 21 min

Friday, October 5, 7 PM Raymundo Gleyzer’s only narrative feature, Los Traidores (The Traitors) follows a union organizer as he falls prey to the corrupting influence of industrialists and Perónist government stooges.

An innovative combination of fiction and documentary, The Traitors was perhaps too close to reality: the film is often cited as a catalyst for Gleyzer’s later abduction by the military regime.

Shown with one of his final documentaries, an ironic yet forceful chronicle of a labor strike in a metallurgical factory.

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Rear Window, 1954

Rear Window Thursday, November 8, 7 PM

112 min Alfred Hitchcock, 1954, USA, 35 mm

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller is famous for its depiction of a certain kind of voyeuristic looking, but it also features one of the most fascinating soundtracks in Hollywood history. The film lacks a traditional musical score, which allows other components of the soundtrack to be used and appreciated in a rare way. This special screening kicks off a year-long investigation of the film’s sound design, which will culminate in the spring with a project-based course sponsored by the MA in Sound Arts and Industries entitled “Ear Window.” Seven time–Academy Award–winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom (Saving Private Ryan, Titanic, Jurassic Park, Ready Player One, Toy Story, Finding Nemo) will introduce the film. Rydstrom is legendary for his artful use of sound to tell stories in film, and he is an expert on Hitchcock, making him an ideal presenter to open our ears to a new way of appreciating this classic film.

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CINEMA

Night of the Comet, 1984

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Women at the End of the World Inspired by Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel selected for Northwestern’s 2018–2019 campus-wide “One Book One Northwestern” program, this series brings together cinematic visions of dystopia and apocalypse featuring women at their center. Like Atwood’s novel, these four films all emerged in the mid-1980s, and all respond to the same political, ecological, and cultural anxieties that figure in The Handmaid’s Tale through their diverse voices and divergent approaches to narrative.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Wednesday, October 17, 7 PM

117 min Hayao Miyazaki, 1984, Japan, 35 mm

In Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved animated film, the world has turned into a toxic wasteland in the fallout of global war. Princess Nausicaä’s home, the Valley of the Wind, is one of the few places remaining green and untouched but becomes threatened by the mutated and destructive creatures of the post-apocalyptic world as well as by the dangerous ambitions of rivaling empires of humans. Even in this, his second film, Miyazaki’s trademark style and themes are well established, combining his imaginative vision with environmental concerns.

Testament Thursday, November 15, 7 PM

90 min Lynne Littman, 1983, USA

Lynne Littman’s Testament offers a personal, devastating, and subversively feminist account of societal collapse. Narrating the ordeals of a suburban Bay Area family in the weeks after a largescale nuclear attack, Testament measures the deepening crisis through the resilience of mother Carol (Jane Alexander) as she watches traditional figures of patriarchal authority crumble around her. Avoiding graphic violence, Littman instead explores the emotional toll of catastrophe through strong performances and brilliant editing.

Born in Flames Friday, November 16, 7 PM

80 min Lizzie Borden, 1983, USA, 35 mm

Set in an alternate-reality, socialist democratic United States, Lizzie Borden’s speculative fiction Born in Flames finds the country plagued by social injustice. This feminist classic is a lowbudget, grassroots production, a reflection of a long-gone grungy yet vibrant downtown New York City. Made at the height of the Reagan years, it tackles sexism, racism, and homophobia in its intertwining narratives about two rival pirate radio stations run by women, a trio of female investigative reporters, and a government threatened by difference. Showing in a newly restored 35 mm print. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with restoration funding from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation. Co-presented with the Northwestern Women’s Center.

Night of the Comet Thursday, December 6, 7 PM

95 min Thom Eberhardt, 1984, USA, 35 mm

In this science fiction cult favorite, a near collision with a comet causes a catastrophe for the planet, killing most living creatures. The select few humans who survived unscathed band together, looking for other survivors while having to contend with the living dead. Filmmaker Thom Eberhardt wrote Night of the Comet around the premise of “valley girls at the end of the world,” and its mix of comedy, camp, and chills is gnarly indeed.

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CINEMA Made In Chicago: Rogers Park Thursday, September 27, 7 PM Kyle Henry, 2017, USA, DCP

87 min

Filmmaker and Associate Professor of Radio, Television, and Film Kyle Henry’s New York Times Critics’ Pick Rogers Park captures the life, diversity, and flavor of the northside Chicago neighborhood in its story of two couples as they attempt to keep their relationships afloat. Henry and screenwriter Carlos Treviño craft a film that is both universal in its characters’ raw and authentic emotional lives and a specific and rich portrait of a little-seen corner of the city. Director Henry, writer Treviño, and actors in person.

Co-presented by the Northwestern Department of Radio, Television, and Film.

The Arboretum Cycle Friday, September 28, 7 PM Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017-18, USA, 16mm

137 min

Since the 1960s, experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky has been making a distinctive and stunning body of work. His silent 16 mm films are lyrical explorations of the world around him, focused on the textures, colors, and rhythms of everyday objects and movements. His sharp eye for details reveals the small moments of beauty and wonder to be found everywhere, if one would simply take the time to look. The Arboretum Cycle is comprised of seven of Dorsky’s films, all completed in 2017, and charts “the world of light and plants” over the course of a year. Filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky in person.

Baghdad in No Particular Order Thursday, October 25, 7 PM Paul Chan, 2003, USA, digital

51 min

In 2002, artist Paul Chan worked as a member of the Iraq Peace Team, formed by the Chicago-based activist group Voices in the Wilderness (now Voices for Creative Nonviolence), which was on the ground in Baghdad to protest the US aggression against Iraq. Chan captures the calm before the storm in this “ambient video essay” with his focus on the routine work and leisure of the Iraqi people. Among the details that are exotic to western eyes, he reveals a shared humanity, one that is under threat of destruction.

With Joe Proulx of Voices for Creative Nonviolence in person.

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Distant Constellation Friday, November 9, 7 PM Shevaun Mizrahi, 2017, Turkey/USA, DCP

80 min

Photographer-turned-filmmaker Shevaun Mizrahi profiles the inhabitants of a retirement home in Istanbul in this intimate documentary, which won major prizes at the Venice and Locarno international film festivals.

In beautifully composed close-ups and long takes, her subjects ruminate and reminisce as the city transforms around them. The work of an exciting new voice in film, Distant Constellation offers a sensitive, subtle meditation on aging, history, and memory. Co-presented with the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies program.

Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation Saturday, November 10, 1 PM and 3:30 PM Called “the premier presenter of avant-garde animation from around the world” by Hyperallergic, Eyeworks is a curated festival that showcases abstract animation and unconventional character animation. The 2018 Eyeworks Festival at The Block features two programs of short films, including restorations, works from rising names in the field, and premieres of new works, and will also screen in Los Angeles and New York City. The programs will be introduced by festival directors Alexander Stewart and Lilli Carré.

New Docs: Minding the Gap Thursday, October 11, 7 PM Bing Liu, 2018, USA, DCP New Docs: Call Her Ganda Friday, November 30, 7 PM PJ Raval, 2018, USA/Philippines, DCP

100 min

98 min

Minding the Gap: In this celebrated documentary, three young men bond together to escape volatile families in their Rust Belt hometown. As they face adult responsibilities, unexpected revelations threaten their decade-long friendship. Chicago-based filmmaker Bing Liu will participate in a Q&A following the screening.

Call Her Ganda: This documentary examines the 2014 murder of Jennifer Laude, a transgender Filipina woman killed by an American Marine, and the struggle for justice waged by her family, friends, lawyers, and investigative journalist Meredith Talusan. Confronting homophobia, colonialism, and the unjust laws of jurisdiction enjoyed by American armed forces in the Philippines, Call Her Ganda tells a powerful story with ingenuity and compassion. Documentary director PJ Raval in person. Co-presented with the MFA in Documentary Media and the Northwestern Women’s Center.

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LEARN WITH US

Sunday Afternoon Tours Select Sundays, 3 PM Join The Block Museum’s incredible team of Northwestern University student docents for a deeper look into the ideas and themes at play in the current exhibitions. These free, informal tours kick off in the museum lobby at 3 PM, and can be tailored to the questions and interests of those attending. Tours typically last 45 min. This season, we will offer tours on the following Sundays:

October 7 October 14 October 21 October 28 November 4 November 11 November 18 December 2 December 9

Northwestern students tour the fall 2018 exhibition William Blake and the Age of Aquarius.

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Students from Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U. Evanston) participate in an exhibition-related program.

Schedule a Group Visit Bring your group to The Block Museum for a free gallery tour of our current exhibitions. We are happy to work with you to plan a visit that meets your group’s needs and interests. All guided tours are led by Northwestern student docents. Our docents come from a wide range of academic backgrounds including art history, psychology, journalism, science, and engineering. On guided tours, our docents provide information about the work on view and also facilitate open discussion.

If you would like to request a tour for your organization, please visit our website to complete a request form.

Visit our Eloise W. Martin Study Center We welcome scholars, classes, and researchers to visit our Eloise W. Martin Study Center to further explore The Block Museum’s permanent collection. To select works for your visit, you may search the online database or contact one of the curators. Appointments can be scheduled for Monday through Friday between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM. To schedule your appointment, contact Collections and Exhibitions Coordinator Joseph Scott at 847.467.0734 or printroom@northwestern.edu

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LEARN WITH US

A student docent interacts with young visitors outisde The Block Museum.

Family Storytelling: Tales of Art at The Block Saturday, November 3, 11 AM Saturday, December 1, 11 AM Museums are full of stories. Join us for read-aloud story zones and interactive activities designed to help you look closer and think deeper about the art on view at the museum. Come discover the stories hidden beneath the surface of the art at The Block and invent your own. Geared for children ages 3–8 but all are welcome. Space is limited and registration is required.

Let us know you’re coming! RSVP at http://bit.ly/BlockRSVP

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Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa January 26 – June 23, 2019 Main Gallery Seeking to dramatically shift how we understand and study the medieval world, Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa, the first major art exhibition to address the global reach of West Africa in the medieval period, opens at The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University on January 26, 2019. The exhibition highlights Africa’s central role in the global medieval period, a time when West African gold fueled a far-reaching economy and served as a crossroads for art, people, and ideas that moved across the Sahara Desert to Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.

Caravans of Gold presents more than 250 artworks and fragments spanning types, styles, and religious practices, representing over five centuries and a vast geographic expanse. The works, both European and African, weave a story of the global networks and multi-directional trade at play in the medieval world. The exhibition is notable for an unprecedented number of loans from the national collections of Africa, including many works never before seen in the United States.

SAVE THE DATE

Opening Celebration: Caravans of Gold Saturday, January 26

Fulani, Senegal, Bead, 19th-20th century, gold filigree. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Eleanor Clay Ford Fund for African Art, 77.10.

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@nublockmuseum

40 Arts Circle Drive Evanston, IL 60208 847.491.4000 block-museum@northwestern.edu

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