The Block Museum of Art’s collection supports learning across disciplines through exhibitions, research, and class and co-curricular visits. One of the ways we grow this resource is through an annual student-led collecting initiative undertaken by the Block Museum Student Associates (BMSA), an interdisciplinary group of Northwestern undergraduates. Throughout the academic year, students learn about museum collecting practices. The experience culminates in their recommending the purchase of one or more works of art centered around a theme. The 2023–2024 BMSA acquisition focused on humor as an artistic strategy. In this installation, we present the BMSA acquisition alongside other works from the museum’s collection related to the theme.
Over the course of the year, our understanding of humor evolved through research and discussion. While no universal theory defines the phenomenon of humor, studies on humor show it is often used to process uncomfortable feelings or to address serious situations through strategies such as exaggeration, absurdity, contradiction, and ambiguity. Humor can also deliver sharp critique. The perception of something as humorous or amusing often depends on context, prompting questions: Who is in on the joke? Is the joke at somebody’s expense? When, why, and how is a work understood to be humorous, and when is it not?
The 2023–2024 Student Associates recommended the purchase of two works by photographer Cara Romero that poke fun at the many ways Indigenous communities have been misrepresented and stereotyped in American culture. You can see Romero’s work TV Indians (2017), also selected by the BMSAs, in the Looking 101 exhibition in the adjacent gallery.