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 Curator's Letter
The DIA is fortunate to own a world-famous collection that includes extraordinary paintings by the best "brushes" that ever existed: Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, and Diego Velázquez. One of the most rewarding activities as a curator is learning new things about our holdings and sharing that information with the public. Examination of works in our conservation lab and the inclusion of them in international exhibitions are two ways of furthering our knowledge of the collection. A recent example is the DIA's portrait by Velázquez, an artist considered the pinnacle of the seventeenth-century Spanish Golden Age of painting. Already recognized in his own time as a prodigious master, his artistic influence on European and American art extends to our time. During the nineteenth century, French painters admired and learned from his fluid, sketchy style, which anticipated much of their impressionist work. Edward Manet simply defined him as the "painter of painters." The French continue to love him and, last March, organized a comprehensive exhibition of Velázquez's oeuvre at Paris's Grand Palais.
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| Portrait of a Man, 1623/1630, oil on canvas; Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez, Spanish. Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund |
The remarkable display of beautiful works borrowed from an international who's who of museums covered all the genres the talented Spaniard explored. Prominent scholars noted that one of the uplifting "surprises" of the show was the DIA's Portrait of a Man, acquired by director William Valentiner in 1929. Prior to this most recent show, the DIA's Velázquez had never been included in a significant exhibition of the artist's works. Furthermore, the painting had generally been overlooked in art historical literature, and shadows of doubt about its attribution hovered over it. The Paris show placed our portrait within the proper context in a gallery with other portraits from the same period, allowing for direct comparisons and ratification of the work as by the artist without question. During the past year the DIA, undertook an in-depth study of our Velázquez--the results are available in the exhibition catalogue and other recent publications. However, a key aspect for the confirmation of its eminent authorship was its inclusion in the Paris show. This loan illuminates the importance of lending works of art to other institutions, an activity that the DIA generously partakes in order to share our collection with the world, collaborate with prestigious museums, and learn more about our own artwork. Moreover, lending our works of art has allowed the DIA to bring to Detroit extraordinary pieces (our "guests of honor") by masters such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, El Greco, Dalí, Rivera, Monet, and Van Gogh, which were accessible to our community for the first time from great museums (Louvre and d'Orsay in Paris, the Prado in Madrid, and the like). Wisdom says: "you get what you give," and the DIA's world-class collection and strategic loan efforts have been beneficial for our community and the institution. We all share this extraordinary collection, but sometimes favorites may be absent, traveling on loan to other countries. I would like to thank all of you for your patience when, for example, our Caravaggio was away or, as in the case in point, the Velázquez was hanging in Paris with its "cousins." It is always for a good purpose that our paintings temporarily leave us. And when our Velázquez is back in the galleries later this month and the French show has closed, just think that Paris will be emptied of Velázquez paintings. We will still have ours, while the amazing Louvre will continue to long for one of its own. 
Salvador Salort-Pons
Curator of European Paintings
Executive Director, Collection Strategies and Information
Detroit Institute of Arts Back to top |
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In the Galleries Get to Know Your DIA As we recover from the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo crowds and prepare for the opening of new permanent collection galleries and the next special exhibition, August would be a good time to get to know your DIA better. Explore parts of the permanent collection that are unfamiliar. Perhaps take the Grand Tour of Italy in the second-floor galleries. In the eighteenth century and on into the nineteenth, the Grand Tour was considered the finishing touch of a young gentleman's education with travels through Venice, Florence, Naples, and Rome in search of art, culture, and the roots of Western civilization.
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| Walking Ibis, 600/30 BCE, bronze and wood with wax inlay; unknown artist, Egypt. Founders Society Purchase, William H. Murphy Fund |
After the grand tour of our Italian galleries, step over to the ancient Greek and Roman area, also on the second floor, for the very beginnings of Western art. Stay in the ancient world, but travel to Egypt and the America's in galleries on the first floor. Another option is trying one of the DIA's themed tours of eight objects spread throughout the galleries. "Take a Hike" provides a nature walk through time and space, beginning on the second floor with Martin Johnson Heade's Hummingbirds and Orchids in the nineteenth-century American art galleries, moving on to modern and contemporary art with Donald Sultan's Oranges on a Branch, and finishing up on the first floor along the Nile with an ancient Egyptian ibis, a wading bird. Three tours are available in booklets at the information desks.
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| Cat, 1913, carved oak and stained walnut; Raymond Duchamp-Villon, French. Gift of Robert H. Tannahill |
Or try your hand at your own thematic tour. To get you started on an animal tour, head for the second-floor modern galleries, starting with the one by the north wing elevator. On one wall, find horses, a big cat, and a dog. There are also some dead fish, but that would be for a cook's tour. For something more lively, turn to your right for swimming goldfish. Continue on to the next gallery and look for Raymond Duchamp-Villon's wood relief Cat and a little deeper into the modern suite of galleries and find Oskar Kokoschka's The Cat. The rest is up to you. Go wonder around and see what other animal life you can find. Top: The Piazza San Marco, ca. 1739, oil on canvas; Canaletto, Italian. Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund and funds from Edsel B. Ford Back to top |
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Detroit Film Theatre Giant Japanese monsters run amok in area Metroparks this month when the DFT moves outdoors for two weekends. Indoors, there's a new Saturday Animation Club matinee and a reprise of The Apu Trilogy.
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| Godzilla vs King Kong |
Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! plays Friday night August 7 at Stony Creek Metropark and King Kong vs. Godzilla Friday, August 21 at Lake St. Clair Metropark. An International Festival of Short Films, a family-friendly evening of short animated and live action films, including prizewinners and festival favorites, runs Saturday, August 8 and Friday, August 22 at Stony Creek and Lake St. Clair Metroparks respectively. Films begin at dusk and are free with paid park admission.
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| Ponyo |
The Saturday Animation Club returns August 15 with Ponyo, an animated adventure centering on the friendship between five-year-old Sosuke and the title character, a magical goldfish that happens to be the daughter of a sorcerer father and a sea-goddess mother. English language version, featuring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, and Tina Fey. If you missed any or all of The Apu Trilogy earlier this summer, it's back on Sunday, August 23, with all three parts shown during the day. This coming of age story marked director Satyajit Ray's debut, putting India on the map, cinematically speaking, when it was released in the 1950s. The films follow the life of the Bengali hero Apu from boyhood to manhood. The individual films are ticketed separately. For more DFT information, click here.
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DIA Statewide
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| The Nut Gatherers, 1882, oil on canvas; William-Adolphe Bouguereau, French. Gift of Mrs. William E. Scripps |
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| Sisters on the Shore, 1896, oil on canvas; William-Adolphe Bouguereau, French. Gift of Charles Willis Ward |
The DIA is expanding its presence statewide with traveling exhibitions, expansion of the popular Inside|Out program to counties outside the Detroit metropolitan area, art-based school programs, and conservation services as a benefit to all Michigan taxpayers who, through the state, contributed to the grand plan that allowed to city of Detroit to exit bankruptcy and safeguarded the museum's collection. The first exhibition has William-Adolphe Bouguereau's The Nut Gatherers at the Flint Institute of Arts through early October, at which time it moves on to the Midland Center for the Arts until January 3, 2016. During the absence of this well-loved painting, another work by Bouguereau, Sisters on the Shore, has been hung in its place in the gallery. A second traveling exhibition, a selection of twenty New Deal-era American prints, will travel to two as yet to be determined locations at a time to be announced. Inside|Out, the popular program that turns communities into outdoor art galleries with high-quality reproductions of DIA works of art, moves further afield than Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. Fifteen reproductions will be installed in two counties each summer, focusing on locations in the forty-five of the state's eighty-three counties that the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs has identified as most culturally underserved. This summer, Grand Haven and Bay City are hosting Inside|Out displays. Click here for downloadable maps of all locations. For schools, the DIA will provide training in Visual Thinking Strategies, an arts-based tool for teaching critical thinking and communication skills in all subjects, as well as follow-up coaching to K-12 educators in two communities annually. The DIA will work with the Michigan Museums Association to support professional development for museum staff throughout Michigan and support learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students interested in museum studies. The museum's Conservation Department will provide consultations, minor conservation treatments, and imaging and scientific analysis at a discounted rate to other Michigan museums. Back to top |
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News and Notes Purple Rose Chelsea's Purple Rose Theatre Company is teaming up with the DFT on Friday, August 21, for an evening of live readings from plays scheduled for the theatre's upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary season. The Detroit stop, part of an Anniversary Script Preview Tour, features professional actors reading from five classic and world-premiere plays: 2AZ by Michael Brian Ogden, The Casting Session by Jeff Daniels, The Odd Couple by Neil Simon, Gaps in the Fossil Record by Matt Letscher, and Morning's At Seven by Paul Osborn. Keys to the City The DIA is partnering with Keys in the Cities and Forward Arts, two nonprofit agencies, to bring artist-painted pianos into three Detroit public spaces, creating opportunities for engaging community musical events. A musical splash of color can be found at the Ford Resource and Engagement Center, Belle Isle, and the Osbourn Neighborhood beginning this month. Three upright pianos take on a colorful new appearance thanks to local artists selected by Forward Arts. The instruments became canvases for Detroit artists Marlo Broughton, Tylon Sawyer and Keri Mortimer to transform into a musical masterpieces. Back to top |
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| Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48202
www.dia.org
313.833.7900 Comments or questions about the newsletter? Please contact us: [email protected] ADMISSION
$12.50 adults, $8 seniors (62+), $ 6 youth (6-17)
The museum is free for members and residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties
Contact the Membership HelpLine at
313.833.7971 or [email protected] For group sales (15 or more) contact 313.833.1292 or dia.org/grouptours
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