Broadening our view of abstract art with works from the Arab world and beyond
Northwestern Now, August 31, 2022
By Lindsay Bosch
The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University will present “Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s –1980s,” Sept. 22 to Dec. 4, 2022. The exhibition features mid-20th-century abstract art from North Africa, West Asia and the Arab diaspora work from the renowned Barjeel Art Foundation collection. The Block Museum is the final stop of a five-city U.S. exhibition tour.
The 90 paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints in “Taking Shape” reflect the wide range of nonfigurative art practices that flourished in the Arab world over four decades and prompt an expansion of the abstract art canon and broadening of conversation to encompass a global view of modernism.