Picturing the Modern Metropolis: Prints and Photographs from The Block's Collection

Many twentieth century artists working in the US were drawn to the city as subject. The spectacle of high-rise buildings, the chaotic and dynamic street signs, and the relentless movements of urban crowds became central visual tropes in photographs and prints that captured the cityscapes of places like Chicago and New York. Using modernist approaches of abstraction, simultaneity, and fragmentation artists sought to convey the sensory atmosphere of places that we often share with each other. In experimenting with modernist forms of depicting the city, these artists were also proposing new ways of understanding it and its democratic potential.

As people from different backgrounds settled in large American cities, the city also became a testing ground for how to live alongside each other. Many artists, especially immigrants and children of immigrants, who settled in large US cities, saw in lively street scenes the
possibility of becoming part of a place where people of many classes and backgrounds share sidewalks, buildings, and bus stops.

The exhibition includes over 90 photographs and prints from the Block’s collection focusing primarily on the 1930s through the 1980s. It brings together well-known artists like Edward Steichen, Martin Lewis, Vivian Maier, and Andy Warhol, as well as Chicago-based artists Henry Simon and Yuichi Idaka. While some of the artists were born in the US, many of the were immigrants who experienced American life as a new chapter, but each of them consistently engaged with the city as subject in their practice, focusing on the sensory and visual experiences of cities.

These artworks invite us to reconsider our cities as sites with boundless possibilities. They may compel us to ask critical questions about the historical role and promise of modern cities. They can also ask us to think about the future of urban experience, and the present challenges to achieve more livable and sustainable communities.

Picturing the Modern Metropolis: Prints and Photographs from The Block's Collection is curated by Eduardo Bello, 2025–26 Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, and Corinne Granof, Academic Curator, at The Block Museum of Art.