Dec. 04--For 35 years, Sidney Block ran Chicago's only gallery devoted to works on paper with a degree of warmth that can be rare in the art world.
Until his health began to decline in recent months, Block could be found at Printworks Gallery five days a week, sitting across from his business partner, Bob Hiebert, warmly greeting patrons from just inside the door of their 650-square-foot space in the River North neighborhood.
"One of the things most people remember about Bob and Sid is that both are incredibly kind and pleasant and they take the time to interact with people," said artist and author Audrey Niffenegger, who was in her early 20s when Block and Hiebert discovered her work.
Block, 91, died on Nov.25, 2015, at the Gold Coast's Terraces at the Clare. He had suffered from a variety of health complications, Hiebert said.
Sidney Block was born on Dec. 16, 1923, to Herman and Leah Leib Block, one of 11 children. He grew up in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood and attended Bowen High School, Hiebert said.
Block earned his bachelor's degree in art history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He spent some time in the Army, Hiebert said, before settling back in Chicago, where he joined the graphic arts studio Coventry, Miller Olzak (now CMO Graphics).
In 1969, Block met Hiebert, a recent Chicago transplant from Minnesota who worked, at the time, at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Hiebert rented a darkroom from CMO Graphics, and the men quickly became close friends.
Sharing a love of fine art posters and prints -- and international travel -- the two men in 1979 took a run at opening a gallery in London devoted to works on paper. After a competitive application process, they were offered one of two spaces (out of 40) available to foreigners in London's redeveloped Covent Garden shopping center. But the space was much too large for their needs, and the rent, Hiebert said, "made New York look cheap."
Back in Chicago, "We were getting a lot of mileage out of the story," Hiebert said, and in 1980, they opened Printworks Gallery at 620 N. Michigan Ave. The gallery remained there until 1983, when it moved to its current location at 311 W. Superior St.
"We had this true love for prints and drawings," Hiebert said. "We thought of prints and drawings as a string quartet, compared with paintings that are a symphony."
"If you make a mistake," in a drawing, he noted, "it's right there -- you see it," whereas mistakes in a painting can be concealed.
Block and Hiebert are credited with discovering several high profile artists.
"Sid and Bob, early on, were showing people like Leon Golub and Philip Pearlstein before people were talking about them," said Jean Broday, director of the Jean Albano Gallery.
Moreover, the two men established a reputation for treating artists fairly. Niffenegger was just 22 when she had her first show at Printworks. Despite her relative inexperience, she said, "As far as I know, they treated me with just as much seriousness and respect as they did their much more exalted people."
"The main thing they did was nurture people," Niffenegger said. "They took a lot of care to encourage, and they hung in with people."
That loyalty -- combined with a commitment to paying artists in full and on time -- inspired the same loyalty in artists, many of whom retained long-term relationships with the gallery.
Hiebert estimates the gallery has had 250 openings in its 35 years.
Block's death, just weeks before his 92nd birthday -- the day of which, he liked to note, he shared with Jane Austen and Ludwig van Beethoven -- also came just before the opening of Printworks' 35th anniversary show on Dec. 4.
For the anniversary show, Block and Hiebert enlisted 105 artists for "The Return of the Exquisite Corpse," a nod to a parlor game started by a group of surrealists in the early 20th century. Each artist painted a third of a figure -- head, body or legs -- without seeing the rest of the figure, resulting in 35 assembled works.
Mr. Block's wife of nearly 56 years, Hanna Hirsch Block, died in 2006.
He leaves no immediate survivors.
A memorial service will be held on Dec. 16 at the Jean Albano Gallery, 251 W. Superior St.
Kate Marshall Dole is a freelance reporter.
