Director's Letter

Growing up in England, I vividly remember a day in 1958 when the walls of my elementary school's assembly hall were festooned with red, yellow, and green bunting. A very large sign behind the stage announced that the "Gold Coast" was now "Ghana." In her address, the headmistress explained that, after many years of being part of the British Empire, the Gold Coast was the first African colony (white-ruled South Africa seemed not to count) to be granted political independence. Years of struggle on the part of the indigenous people went unmentioned in what was presented as an act of unusual magnanimity on our part guided by the sense that enough "civilization" had been imparted to the natives to allow them to rule themselves. It was not until many years later--in fact, I was by then a faculty member at an American university--that I learned from a gentle Ghanaian student that one of the real reasons the British had left was because there was no more gold to be extracted from the Gold Coast!

As outlined by DIA Curator Nii Quarcoopome in his introduction to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Through African Eyes, the independence of Ghana was the beginning of the postcolonial era in a five-hundred-year history of intense, complex interaction between Europeans and sub-Saharan Africans. For more than one hundred years, those who wrote the history textbooks for the children of imperial nations and their "white" colonies inevitably told a story of good-hearted Christians bringing literal and figurative light to a dark continent. Although the slave trade was mentioned it was downplayed as something long past, brought to an end by the tireless efforts of committed Christians. As a British schoolboy in the 1950s, I had no way of knowing that the numbers of fatalities given for the residents of Mefaking during its siege in the Second Boer War (1899-1900) did not include the equally numerous Africans. Nor that these people were not even given the same meager rations to which whites were "reduced." Today, the situation could hardly be more different. Multiculturalism permeates all aspects of Western education in one way or another, and the history shelves of bookstores are, it sometimes seems, practically groaning with books describing in minute detail the appalling atrocities inflicted upon innocent natives by exploitive merchants, ignorant missionaries, and brutal soldiers.

It is how African recipients of such changing behaviors perceived and depicted them that is the subject of Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to the Present. The exhibition examines the variations and dynamics of cultural exchanges between Africans and Europeans over five hundred years, focusing on specific exchanges between, for instance, Benin kings and Portuguese traders, Ewe elders and Danish merchants, and Kongo chiefs and colonial French administrators. This strategy seeks to avoid cultural generalizations and instead takes seriously the individual interests and alliances made among Africans and Europeans on pragmatic bases rather than theoretical principles alone.

Exhibitions

Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present

Special Exhibition Galleries: South
April 18-August 8

This exhibition examines five hundred years of interactions between African cultures and European outsiders, using approximately one hundred objects in wood, ivory, metal, and textile to tell the story of these encounters. The result is a cross-cultural visual survey from more than twenty African cultures represented by objects ranging from sixteenth-century Benin bronzes to nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century beer mugs and royal chairs. Installations and works by contemporary artists are also in the exhibition.

Overall, Through African Eyes captures and analyzes the multiplicity of African engagements with and reactions to the European presence. Broad phases in the history of this ongoing intercultural dialogue are outlined, from the early commercial transactions to the installation of European permanent settlements in Africa, to the tensions arising from European colonial rule in the first half of the twentieth century. It concludes with the emergence of independent nations in Africa, which thrust the continent into the global community.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with essays by leading scholars in the field.

Members are admitted free, but reserved timed tickets are necessary. Member preview days for Through African Eyes are Friday, April 16, 1-10 p.m., and Saturday, April 17, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Curator of African Art Nii Quarcoopome gives two members-only lectures, Friday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m., and Saturday, April 17, at 1 p.m. For the general public, tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for youth, ages six to seventeen, and $10 for groups of fifteen or more. Price includes museum admission and a multimedia tour. Reserve and purchase tickets at the DIA Box Office, at dia.org, or by calling 1.866.DIA.TIXS (1.866.342.8497). A $3.50 handling charge applies to all nonmember tickets, except those sold at the DIA.

This exhibition has been organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Generous support has been provided by the Friends of African and African American Art, the DTE Energy Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support has been provided by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the City of Detroit.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Above: Thomas Ona Odulate, Yoruba culture, Nigerian; European Couple Walking the Dog, 1935-55; wood, paint. Fowler Museum at UCLA, Estate of William A. McCarty-Cooper. ©Fowler Museum at UCLA. Photo: Denis Nervig

Detroit Experiences: Robert Frank Photographs, 1955

Special Exhibition Galleries: Central
Through July 3

Not even a night spent in jail could dim artist Robert Frank's appreciation for the city of Detroit. Writing to his wife in 1955, following his arrest for having two different license plates for his car, he said, "Detroit is all right--just the way an American City should look."

Detroit was one of Frank's early stops on a cross-country journey to make "a large visual record of America," as he stated in a grant application to the Guggenheim Foundation seeking money to travel. It was while photographing a group of Detroiters that the Swiss artist was stopped and questioned by the police, who found an old license plate from a previous owner in his car's trunk. Those Detroit photographs became part of his groundbreaking book The Americans.

In his work, Frank chose to look beneath the surface of life in the United States, finding a culture that challenged his perceptions and popular notions of the American Dream. He developed an unconventional photographic style that was innovative and controversial in its time. Photographing quickly, Frank sometimes tilted and blurred compositions, presenting people and their surroundings in fleeting and fragmentary moments with an unsentimental eye. Detroit offered him unique insight into how Americans lived and worked. In particular, he was fascinated with the automobile and its presence in the landscape and its effect on the country's social fabric.

Above: Robert Frank, American (born Switzerland); Drive-In Movie, Detroit, 1955; gelatin silver print. Founders Society Purchase, Tina and Lee Hills Graphic Arts Fund
© Robert Frank, from The Americans

Detroit Film Theatre

Kim Hye-ja in Mother

Among the films on this month's schedule is Mother, a gripping, visually stylish thriller that is at once a murder mystery, a family drama, and an ingenious contemporary film noir from South Korean director Bong Joon-ho. The mother of the title is convinced that her grown son--who has a slight mental disability--is innocent of the brutal murder of which he has been accused. The police, however, are certain that this is a simple, open-and-shut case, so when they make it clear that they don't intend to investigate any other possible suspects, it's up to this fiercely protective mother to get her son out of jail and to prove his innocence.

Also in April are The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers; Verdi's Il Trovatore, part of the World Opera in Cinema series; and three films from the DFT 101 series of classics: 8½, The Baker's Wife, and Day of Wrath. The series concludes May 1 with the Marx Brothers' Horse Feathers.

For the complete DFT schedule, click here.

Poster Contest Winners

And the Winner Is . . .

Tany Nagy
Jonathon Wilcox

The votes have been counted and the winner of the Let's Save Michigan poster contest is Tany Nagy, a Waterford artist and founder of the design and imaging company Pulse. Her design, featuring dozens of upraised hands in the shape of the Lower Peninsula, with wind turbines in the background, was chosen from sixty finalists. The Upper Peninsula is being added to the winning design. Four runners-up were also selected.

Jonathon Wilcox, a Michigan native now living in Seattle, won the Critic's Choice award for his poster, which a panel of judges deemed had done the best job of embodying the goals of the competition by highlighting the actions and assets necessary to move Michigan and its cities forward.

The contest, sponsored by Let's Save Michigan and the DIA, was intended to harness the creativity of Michiganders and start a conversation about how to build more livable cities. More than three hundred entries, most from Michigan with others coming from across the country, plus one entry each from China and Lithuania, were received.

View the winning posters here.

New Web Site

The DIA has a newly redesigned Web site that is easier to navigate, enabling you to find what you're looking for more quickly. The site features new drop-down menus, a customizable calendar, and easy access to our online communities. Home-page buttons allow you to quickly advance to locations to purchase event tickets and memberships, or make a donation. Check it out here.

Save the Date

Join Friends of African and African Art (FAAAA) board members at this gala event. The groundbreaking exhibition Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to the Present, showcases some of the finest works by Africa's indigenous and contemporary artists, depicting the story of Africa's interactions with Europe and the West over the past 500 years. FAAAA is a major sponsor of the exhibition. The evening's proceeds support acquisitions for the collections of African and African American art, as well as lectures and programs sponsored by FAAAA. For more information, or to obtain tickets for the annual Bal, please call 313.833.1049.