The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is set to open “Picturing the Modern Metropolis: Prints and Photographs from The Block’s Collection,” a new exhibition running from September 9 through December 6, 2026, according to museum announcements. The show brings together more than 100 works centered on the 20th century, exploring how artists captured the scale, speed, diversity, and shared public life of the growing American city through photography, printmaking, and drawing.
Exploring the 20th-Century Urban Experience
During the 20th century, industry, commerce, migration, and culture drove an expansion of urban life across the United States. According to exhibition organizers, artists were drawn to cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh as primary subjects. They highlighted aspects of the urban environment ranging from spectacular skylines and lively streets to neon signs and weathered walls.
To capture the sensory experience of the metropolis, artists developed new visual languages. Oblique viewpoints, fragmentation, abstraction, double exposure, and dramatic effects of light and movement transformed familiar surroundings into sites of artistic experimentation. This visual exploration extended to the moving image. The exhibition features Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler’s landmark 1921 film Manhatta, displayed via a digital restoration sourced from the only known surviving 35mm print.
“This exhibition offers a chance to see the breadth of The Block’s collection through a subject that artists returned to again and again,” said Corinne Granof, academic curator at The Block and co-curator of the exhibition. “Together, these works show how artists found new visual possibilities in the city and helped shape the ways we continue to imagine urban life.”
Thematic Organization and Deep Chicago Ties
Organized in three thematic sections, the exhibition moves from panoramic skylines and monumental infrastructure to the public life of the street and visual fragments embedded in city surfaces. The showcase features works by internationally renowned figures including Christo, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Edward Steichen, W. Eugene Smith, Vivian Maier, and Brett Weston.
Bak and Henry Simon. Additional works include pieces by Yuichi Idaka, Nathan Lerner, Richard Nickel, Aaron Siskind, and other artists connected to Chicago’s Institute of Design. For many artists who immigrated to the United States in response to war, persecution, or political upheaval, the city represented the possibility of beginning again.
“Many of these artists learned about the city by moving through it and looking closely,” said Eduardo Bello, 2025–26 Block Museum interdisciplinary graduate fellow and co-curator of the exhibition. “Their images show modernity taking shape through everyday encounters, educational institutions, and local creative communities.”
Public Programming and Key Events
The museum has scheduled a series of public programs to accompany the exhibition’s run:
- September 30, 2026 (6:00 to 7:30 p.m.): Exhibition Keynote featuring photography historian Greg Foster-Rice of Columbia College Chicago discussing the relationship between picture-making and lived urban experience.
- October 9, 2026 (12:30 to 2:00 p.m.): “Our Changing City: The Obama Presidential Center,” featuring journalist Natalie Moore and Northwestern history professor Leslie M. Harris discussing the center’s impact during Northwestern’s Homecoming and Reunion Weekend.
- October 22, 2026 (3:30 to 4:30 p.m.): Curator’s Talk titled “Modernity in the Making,” led by co-curator Eduardo Bello inside the gallery.
Picturing the Modern Metropolis is curated by Eduardo Bello and Corinne Granof. The exhibition remains open to the public at The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University through December 6, 2026.