Block Museum - Northwestern University

Join Us for Fall Exhibitions and Programs

September 17-December 14, 2025

Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler and Artists’ Experiments on Paper

The Block Museum of Art presents an exhibition showcasing newly acquired works from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation through the Frankenthaler Prints Initiative. Highlighting Frankenthaler’s experimental printmaking techniques, the exhibition pairs Frankenthaler's work with lithographs, watercolors, and drawings from artists in dialogue with her artistic methods.

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September 17 - December 14, 2025Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler and Artists’ Experiments on Paper

The Living Room at The Block

The Living Room is a drop-in space at The Block Museum that invites students and visitors to gather, reflect, and connect with one artwork in the museum’s collection, rotating each month.

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The Living Room at The Block

The Block Collects 2025

The Block Collects 2025 showcases student-selected works by Chitra Ganesh and a class-curated exhibition on horror and modernism.

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The Block Collects 2025

Coffee Break in The Living Room

Drop in for a cup and a conversation—every Wednesday, 3PM–5PM, the coffee’s on us.

coffee

Upcoming Programs

Free and Open to All

Performances

Oct176:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Exhibition Keynote: Alexander Nemerov on Helen Frankenthaler’s Diversions

What is the relationship between an artwork and its maker? Can we confidently link the two, or do they diverge in meaning and intention? In this keynote lecture, Alexander Nemerov (Stanford University, Department of Art & Art History) will reflect on these enduring questions, drawing from his acclaimed biography Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York.

The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is an engine that drives questioning, experimentation, and collaboration across fields of study, with visual arts at the center....

OUR MISSION AND VISION

Stories From The Block

A group of people stand between two trees on a grassy slope. A clothesline between the two trees holds drying strips of film

Eco-Processing in Action: A Year of Sustainable Film Workshops at Block Cinema

Part of a 16mm film reel viewed through a magnifier shows a woman's face in black and white

Rediscovering Trans Histories on Screen: Block Cinema at the Visible Evidence Conference

Meet Llewyn Blossfeld, Curatorial Associate

Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art Presents “Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler..."

Collection Spotlight: Dawoud Bey, “A Woman and Three Children,” 1985

Block Cinema Awarded National Grant to Preserve Films by Kentucky Animator Ed Counts

Collection Council Selects Work by Martin Wong and Sammy Baloji for 2024–2025 Acquisition

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Join Us for Fall Exhibitions and Programs

Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler and Artists’ Experiments on Paper

The Living Room at The Block

The Block Collects 2025

Coffee Break in The Living Room

Upcoming Programs

Exhibition Keynote: Alexander Nemerov on Helen Frankenthaler’s Diversions

The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is an engine that drives questioning, experimentation, and collaboration across fields of study, with visual arts at the center....

Stories From The Block

Eco-Processing in Action: A Year of Sustainable Film Workshops at Block Cinema

Rediscovering Trans Histories on Screen: Block Cinema at the Visible Evidence Conference

Meet Llewyn Blossfeld, Curatorial Associate

Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art Presents “Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler..."

Collection Spotlight: Dawoud Bey, “A Woman and Three Children,” 1985

Block Cinema Awarded National Grant to Preserve Films by Kentucky Animator Ed Counts

Collection Council Selects Work by Martin Wong and Sammy Baloji for 2024–2025 Acquisition

Collection Spotlight: Igshaan Adams, “Klip Gooi, Stone Throw III”

The Block Museum of Art Announces National Tour of Jordan Ann Craig Exhibition

The Living Room at The Block Offers a Monthly Encounter with One Work of Art