DIA eNews June 2015
In This Issue

Chairman's LetterDirector's Letter

Graham W.J. Beale, Director 

Where to start and how to end? For nearly sixteen years, I've had the pleasure of writing newsletter columns that tried to give DIA members a sense of what goes on behind the scenes here as well as in the wider art museum world. This, in all likelihood, is my last letter as director, and I would like to thank those who have contributed so notably to the successes of my tenure here. But, as I have only so much space and as I am bound to leave someone out, I will do so, by and large, in general terms.

First, DIA staff: my many colleagues whose loyalty, determination, and expertise helped me in so many ways in the transformation of the DIA into a new and forward-looking place. Second, the volunteers: from board members to gallery assistants and from auxiliary leaders to office aides, they represent a force that gives the museum reach and power multiple times its annual operating budget. Third, the many patrons: private individuals, foundations, and businesses who have generously supported the DIA through the truly challenging first fifteen years of this century. Then there are all the individuals in the political realm--many elected officials, many not--who helped steer the DIA through its successful millage campaign. Wherever I travel in the world, there is amazement verging on disbelief that such a thing was possible in these days of, it seems, unrelenting belt-tightening. Finally, there are those who helped stave off the sale of DIA art during the city bankruptcy--some lawyers, some not; some politicians, some not--and made the DIA the embodiment of "that which does not kill you, makes you stronger."

For most of my career I had the priceless privilege of doing work that was exactly what I wanted to do, pay check or not. And while that was not really the case during the millage campaign and the bankruptcy crisis, I like to think that remaking the DIA lies at the core of our new lease on life. Without the "New DIA" there would have been no millage. Without the millage, the DIA would have been all but closed by the time of the bankruptcy, a moribund institution much easier to plunder than one that had gained the trust and, dare I say it, love of a significant population, demonstrating a level of support that affected the opening moves of those guiding the bankruptcy. So, in the end, I believe, it was the commitment to art and the conviction that art really matters to people that underlay our political and legal victories.

I leave with some regrets at unfinished business--most notably the reinstallation of our ancient near-eastern antiquities and our Asian collections--and the museum faces a steep climb as we raise funds for an unrestricted endowment that will free it from the need for significant public funding. But, overall, I leave with an unfamiliarly deep sense of satisfaction that the DIA makes a difference again: locally, nationally and internationally, to scholars and nonspecialists alike. As is seen so vividly in the current Diego/Frida show, art and life are not separate but tightly connected and motivated by a passion that does not stop.

To all of you who have enlivened and enlightened my Detroit sojourn--and I hope you know who you are--thank you. It's been quite a ride.

To listen to Graham Beal discuss his time in Detroit with Wayne State University Professor of Art and Art History Jeffrey Abt, author of the book Museum on the Verge: A Socioeconomic History of the Detroit Institute of Arts, click here.

Graham Beal Signature
Graham W. J. Beal, Director

Detroit Institute of Arts

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Exhibitions

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in DetroitDiego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit

Through July 12, 2015
Special Exhibition Galleries South

Frida Kahlo's art has been likened to a memoir--self-absorbed and confessional. From her time in Detroit onward, her life and imagination became the fundamental touchstone of her work. "I am the subject I know best," she said. The catalyst for this path of artistic self-discovery was a lost pregnancy while she was in Detroit with husband Diego Rivera, who was painting his renowned Detroit Industry murals.

In his autobiography, Rivera said, "Frida began work on a series of masterpieces which had no precedent in the history of art--paintings which exalted the feminine qualities of endurance of truth, reality, cruelty, and suffering. Never before had a woman put such agonized poetry on canvas as Frida did at this time in Detroit."

Kahlo was treated at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital when she began hemorrhaging; she subsequently lost the child she was carrying and grappled with the ordeal in the painting Henry Ford Hospital, a work that brings together themes she would explore for the rest of her career: the modern and ancient Americas, the real and the fantastic. The event also influenced Rivera to change the east wall panel of his murals from an agricultural scene to an infant inside the bulb of a plant.

Check below for exhibition-related programs and events.

Extra open hours have been added in anticipation of the crowds to come. The museum is open Thursdays and Fridays until 10 p.m. and until 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Thursday nights are usually not very crowded and are a good opportunity to see the exhibition. If you're going to be in town for the Independence Day festivities, the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 4. Tickets can be purchased here.

A parking reminder, now that the M-1 rail line construction has moved to the west side of Woodward, blocking the entrance to the Woodward circle drive, valet parking is no longer available. On the weekends, parking may be found in the Rackham parking structure on Warren and at Wayne State's lot #6 behind the Maccabees Building with an entrance on Putnam, in addition to the DIA lot directly behind the museum off John R Street. The Rackham and Wayne State lots accept credit or debit cards only. Construction updates are posted on the DIA website.

Top: Henry Ford Hospital, 1932, oil on metal; Frida Kahlo, Mexican. Collection Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, M�xico, � 2014 Banco de M�xico Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Middle: Agricultural Scene, 1932, charcoal with brown pigment over light charcoal on paper; Diego Rivera, Mexican. Gift of the Artist.

Bottom: Infant in the Bulb of a Plant, 1932, charcoal with brown pigment over light charcoal on paper; Diego Rivera, Mexican. Gift of the Artist.

The exhibition has been organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Generous support for the exhibition has been provided by Bank of America. Additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Henry and Mary Ellen Bellaimey Family Foundation.

Bank of America

National Endowment for the ArtsConaculta INBA

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New On ViewNew On View

 

The Devout Childhood of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, 1851-52, oil on canvas; Charles Allston Collins, British. Museum Purchase, Ernest and Rosemarie Kanzler Foundation Fund 

 

While the DIA has other paintings by artists connected to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Charles Allston Collins's The Devout Childhood of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary adds an early and ardent example of the movement's stark realism and complete lack of idealization.

In 1848, a group of young English painters took as their inspiration Italian art that predated the Renaissance, in other words, "before Raphael." They signed their work, an art characterized by minute description of detail, a luminous palette of bright colors, and subject matter of a noble, religious, or moralizing nature, with three mysterious initials: PRB, for Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The combination of an unorthodox painting style, religious subject matter that relied heavily on Roman Catholic traditions, and the suggestion of a secret, monastic-style society touched almost every nerve in a largely Protestant country where Catholicism had once been equated with treason.

Charles Allston Collins (1828-73) was born into the artistic elite of London. His father, William Collins, was a successful landscape and genre painter. Collins' older brother, Wilkie, found fame as the author of such popular novels as The Moonstone and The Woman in White. Charles's middle name came from his godfather, the American painter Washington Allston. In addition, Charles married one of Charles Dickens's daughters.

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-31) was renowned for her piety. Here, in an episode from Lives of the Saints by Alban Butler, an eighteenth-century English Roman Catholic priest, she is shown pressing herself against the locked door of the palace chapel. So eager to follow her devotions, she has arrived too early but, undeterred "knelt down on the threshold and always put up her petition to the throne of God."

Growing acceptance of the Pre-Raphaelites by a new-money class did little to affect the attitudes of the critics, and Collins's painting was duly savaged when it appeared in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1852. The Spectator urged him to "rise altogether above the little excellences of quietism, into masculine vigor and sympathies." Despite such hostility from the cultural establishment, the Pre-Raphaelite approach to painting influenced several generations of British artists and can be viewed as one of the most significant home-grown artistic movement of nineteenth-century Britain.

The painting can be seen in the third-floor gallery of nineteenth-century British art.

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Detroit Film TheatreDetroit Film Theatre

 

The summer DFT season kicks off with a free, outdoor screening of the new animated movie Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (left), part of the Cinetopia International Film Festival featuring the best dramas, comedies, and documentaries from the world's best film festivals. This celebration of Gibran's book was created by artists, animators, and musicians from around the world.It does not open in theaters nationally until August. The Prophet plays on the DIA's north lawn, Friday, June 5 at 9:30 p.m., and is preceded by a live jazz interpretation of Gustav Holst's The Planets by the Mike Jellick Ensemble at 7 p.m. In the event of rain, the concert and film will move indoors to the DFT. Cinetopia continues Saturday and Sunday, June 6 and 7, with films playing throughout the weekend in the DFT Auditorium and the museum's Lecture Hall. See the entire DIA lineup here.

 

The Apu Trilogy, a coming of age story that marked director Satyajit Ray's debut, put India on the map, cinematically speaking, when it was released in the 1950s. The films follow the life of the Bengali hero Apu (left) from boyhood to manhood. All three films play Saturday and Sunday, June 13 and 14; on Friday, June 12, only the first installment is scheduled. Individual films are ticketed separately, making the purchase of a five-admission discount pass the most economical way to see all three parts.

Also on the schedule are About Elly, an intricate mystery-thriller from Iran that was previously unavailable in this country because of legal issues, and Losing Ground, a gently comic and insightful look at the relationship of a middle-class black couple--young philosophy professor Sarah and Victor, an older artist who has finally sold a painting to a major museum.

The Saturday Animation Club returns Saturday, June 20, with a matinee showing of Coraline, the story of a young girl bored with the new house her family has moved into, until she discovers a door through which she can explore another world. Nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar, the film features the voice of Dakota Fanning as Coraline.

For more DFT information, including times and ticket prices, click here.

Presented by

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Where In The WorldWhere In The World...

...are Frida and Diego? The DIA's Instagram scavenger hunt can help you follow in Frida Kahlo's and Diego Rivera's footsteps.

In conjunction with the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit exhibition, the museum has devised a scavenger hunt of the places these famed Mexican artists visited between April 1932 and March 1933, when Rivera was completing his Detroit Industry frescoes and Kahlo was developing her artistic style.

A weekly clue to a location will be posted on the DIA's Instagram account for the next six weeks. Once followers determine the location, they must post a photo of themselves at the spot on Instagram and include "#DiegoAndFrida were here" and tag @DIADetroit in the caption. The first five people to guess the location correctly receive a pair of tickets to the exhibition.

 

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo on Belle Isle, � Detroit Institute of Arts Archives

 

The first clue posted last week was "Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo visited this popular location (still a favorite among locals today) to relax outdoors. Rivera also came here to sketch images of life on the Detroit River." See the photo at left for the answer.

Exhibition-related programs continue throughout the month, including a lecture on Wednesday, June 10: "At the Crossroads: Vision of Pan-Americanism in the U.S. Works of Mexican Artists," which explores alternative visions of the two Americas--North and South--In the work of Jos� Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Frida Kahlo.

 

Tlen-Huicani, considered the most faithful interpreter of the folk music of Veracruz, Mexico, and regions of Central America, perform in the indigenous language of Nahutal and play instruments unique to the region, including the harpa jarocha or folk harp, for Friday Night Live on June 19 at 7 and 8:30 p.m.

Pitch in when Detroit's Matrix Theatre Company constructs a giant, walking puppet in the likeness of Rivera on the stage of the Detroit Film Theatre. Visitors can help make some of the many parts that go into creating a more than seven-foot-tall puppet in an open-workshop format. The finished puppet makes a guest appearance at the 2015 Concert of Colors programs on July 10. Puppet-making sessions are Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday, June 26, 27, and 30, as well as Wednesday, July 1, from noon until 4 p.m. Two additional sessions are on Thursday and Friday, July 2 and 3, from noon until 8 p.m.

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News and NotesNews and Notes

Art + Authors: Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo

The DIA book group's discussion of Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, by Hayden Herrara was so popular, we've scheduled another go-around for those who may have missed it the first time. The sessions, Friday, June 26 and Saturday, June 27 at 10:30 a.m., include conversations about Herrera's compelling biography and associated works of art. Art and Authors talks are free with museum admission, but advanced registration is required. Click here or call 313.833.4005 to sign up. The book is available in the Museum Shop.

On the Outside

 

For the first time since the DIA's Cret building was opened in 1927, the white marble fa�ade is getting a well-deserved face lift. The cleaning and tuck-pointing project, supported by a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, not only gives the original building a bath but also repairs mortar joints and fixes broken stones. Tuck-pointing is the process of removing the existing mortar bed between each piece of marble and repointing it with a new mortar joint colored to match the newly cleaned stone. Also getting a cleaning are the bronze replicas of Donatello's Saint George and Michelangelo's Dying Slave that flank the Woodward entrance. The project will be completed by the fall.

In the Shop

This June, find the best gifts for dads and grads at the DIA Museum Shop. Give dad a wallet made from seat-belts, a bold tie, or a cool timepiece. Great ideas for graduates include a replica of Rodin's The Thinker, a book bag, or a t-shirt featuring the Rivera murals. Visit during regular museum hours or shop online, anytime, at diashop.org.

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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
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