Block Museum Showcases the Beauty of Renaissance and Baroque Engravings

Written by Alice Newcomb Monday, 22 November 2010 19:49

EVANSTON, IL.- Composed entirely of lines, engravings are works of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy. Northwestern University's Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art will focus on the engraved line from April 9 through June 20 with two exhibitions highlighting the technical virtuosity and innovativeness of European engravers of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Both exhibitions are free and open to the public. The Block Museum is located at 40 Arts Circle Drive, on the University's Evanston campus.

"The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650," in the Block's Main Gallery, traces the development and proliferation of the art form across Europe with rarely-seen prints from the Renaissance and Baroque periods by master engravers, including Albrecht Dürer and Hendrick Goltzius.

An in-gallery and online interactive component lets visitors explore selected prints in detail and examine the complex layers of lines that make up engravings. For more information and to view images of prints in the exhibition.

A companion exhibition, drawn primarily from the Block Museum's own collection, "Engraving the Ephemeral," in the Ellen Philips Katz and Howard C. Katz Gallery, explores some of the methods used to represent atmospheric and transitory conditions in engravings. Artists developed a rich visual vocabulary of dots, dashes and lines to convey the effects of

The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, is the fine arts museum of Chicago’s North Shore, offering focused visual arts programming for the Northwestern University community and the greater Chicago area. The Museum mounts several exhibitions a year, organizes numerous lectures, symposia, and workshops with artists and scholars, and screens classic and contemporary films at Block Cinema. We also reach national and international audiences through our traveling exhibitions, publications, and Web site. Our expanding permanent collection—consisting primarily of works on paper—distinguishes the Block as an important repository of original works of art.

The Block Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. Accreditation recognizes high standards and ensures that museums continue to uphold their public trust. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for more than 35 years, AAM’s museum accreditation program is the field’s primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation and public accountability. Visit :  http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/current/brilliant.html.

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