Skip to main content
Collections Menu
Advanced Search

The Block Museum Collection

The Block Museum Collection

With over 6,000 artworks in its holdings, The Block Museum of Art enriches teaching, learning, reflection, and dialogue while serving as a springboard for interdisciplinary thinking about the issues of our time. The foundation of the museum’s collection lies in prints, drawings, photographs, and other works on paper, and these continue to be areas of expansion. Additionally, The Block collects modern and contemporary art globally across all mediums.

Learn more about engaging with The Block collection, including teaching resources and database tutorials.

View list of our most recent acquisitions.
View All Works
View All Works
Collection Highlights
A nude god of wine Bacchus holds a glass and five other figures surround him
Looking 101 (Fall 2024)
4 Objects
A cylindrical basket with white, brown, and orange paper woven in diamond pattern
One Book One Northwestern 2024-2025: The Night Watchman
10 Objects
Woman holding feathers and sunflowers standing inside blue cube surrounded by a border with symbols
The Block Collects (2024)
15 Objects
Two people with light skin tone stand on porch of house at the front door, facing away from camera
A Little Truth: Fact and Fiction in Family Photography
41 Objects
Organic triangular shape with three round edges mounted on a bronze cylinder
Campus Art Walk
15 Objects
Unbound book of 30 black-and-white photos in teakwood box and wrapped in an embroidered cloth
Collection Spotlight
98 Objects
Explosion of brightly colored, geometric and organic shapes float above a pale green background
Computer-generated Art
15 Objects
Portrait of dark-skinned man wearing dark green, a cape, and a lace collar, holding a pair of cleats
Critical Portraits
22 Objects
Two thin wavy white plotter lines span across a background comprised of smoke clouds and wisps
Dario Robleto: The First Time, The Heart
51 Objects
A muscled man in a toga holds a globe on his shoulders while two nude figures and cherubs look on
Drawings
20 Objects
Virgin Mary with infant Jesus beside her, playing with a branch offered by Joseph behind them
For One and All: Circulation
11 Objects
Two women on bus in orange and pink dresses with a child dressed in white on their laps
For One and All: Collecting
14 Objects
Collaged image of mother with medium-dark skin holding an infant in front of bright-color background
For One and All: Communication
16 Objects
A black-and-white photograph of a sculpture of a man in a suit sitting in an armchair
Global Modern and Contemporary Art
20 Objects
Brown, yellow, and orange ink drawing of a home with floorplan, exterior views, and elevations
Griffin Collection of Architectural Drawings
15 Objects
Photo of three dark-skinned women standing between two sculptures and wearing patterned dresses
Institutions Critiqued
15 Objects
Color photograph of a cup and bowl of peaches on a white cutting board with a light green background
Looking 101 (Fall 2022)
10 Objects
Person in brightly colored dress holds flowers in one hand and a disembodied hand with the other
Looking 101 (Winter 2024)
5 Objects
A girl in a dress looks at the viewer and sits in the lap of her mother, who looks at her tenderly
Mother and Child
13 Objects
Female-presenting guard stands outside a prison cell and looks at two women on bunks inside
One Book One Northwestern 2020–21: Just Mercy
10 Objects
Color aerial photograph of a desert with a dark pentagonal structure and a river with vegetation
One Book One Northwestern 2021–22: The Story of More
11 Objects
Grayscale photograph of wooded area with dense, overlapping bare trees
One Book One Northwestern 2022–23: How the Word Is Passed
11 Objects
One Book One Northwestern 2023–24: Crying in H Mart
One Book One Northwestern 2023–24: Crying in H Mart
11 Objects
Full-body view of Black man who wears cowboy attire, such as a hat, boots and gun holstor
Photographs
22 Objects
Black-and-white landscape with human faces carved in rock with small figure at center of the image
Place and Memory
17 Objects
Recent Acquisitions
Recent Acquisitions
26 Objects
Image of brown-skinned figure wearing a turban superimposed on black-and-white landscape of Venice
Reframing the Past
33 Objects
Portrait of artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith from the knees up with her hands in coat pockets
Rosalie Favell: Indigenous Artists Facing the Camera
34 Objects
A cylindrical basket with white, brown, and orange paper woven in diamond pattern
Sculpture
20 Objects
The Block Collects (2022)
The Block Collects (2022)
13 Objects
/ 2