SAVING THE ART OF DETROIT
Table
Of Content
1. THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS 2. A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST 3. aN OUTLET FOR THE FUTURE 4. REFERENCES
THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS
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The original DIA building
The DIA is located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest, most significant art collections in the United States. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars.
With over 100 galleries, it covers 658,000 square feet; a major renovation and expansion project completed in 2007 added 58,000 square feet (5,388 m²). The museum building is highly regarded by architects. The original building, designed by Paul
Philippe Cret, is flanked by north and south wings with the white marble as the main exterior material for the entire structure. It is part of the cities Cultural Center Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The museum’s first painting was donated in 1883 and its collection consists of over 65,000 works. The DIA is an encyclopedic museum: its collections span the globe from ancient Egyptian works to contemporary art. The DIA is located in Midtown Detroit’s Cultural Center Historic District, about two miles (3 km) north of the down-
town area, near Wayne State University. The Detroit Institute of Arts hosts major art exhibitions and also contains the 1,150-seat Detroit Film Theatre (designed by theatre architect C. Howard Crane).
A
GLIMPSE PAST into the
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collection, to the museum where it was exhibited while the new building was under construction. The work was placed in the Great Hall of the new
The Museum had its genesis in an 1881 tour of Europe made by local newspaper magnate James E. Scripps. Scripps kept a journal of his family’s five-month tour of art and culture in Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, portions of which were published in his newspaper The Detroit News. The series proved so popular that it was republished in book form called Five Months Abroad. The popularity inspired William H. Brearley, the manager of the newspaper’s advertising department to organize an art exhibit in 1883, which was also extremely well received.
Brearly convinced many leading Detroit citizens to contribute to establish a permanent museum. It was originally named the Detroit Museum of Art. Among the donors were James Scripps, his brother George H. Scripps, Dexter M. Ferry, Christian H. Buhl, Gen. Russell A. Alger, Moses W. Field, James McMillan and Hugh McMillan, George H. Hammond, James F. Joy, Francis Palms, Christopher R. Mabley, Simon J. Murphy, John S. Newberry, Cyrenius A. Newcomb, Sr., Thomas W. Palmer, Philo Parsons, George B. Remick, Allan Shelden, David Whitney Jr., George V. N. Lothrop, and Hiram Walker. Scripps gave the single largest gift of $50,000, which enabled the Detroit Museum of Art to be incorporated on April 16, 1885. The original Romanesque style building on East Jefferson at Hastings opened its doors on September 1, 1888.
In 1889, Scripps donated 70 European paintings, valued at $75,000 at the time. Later support for the museum came from Detroit philanthropists such as Charles Lang Freer, and the auto barons: art and funds were donated by the Dodges, the Firestone’s and the Fords,especially Edsel Ford and his wife Eleanor, and subsequently their children. Robert Hudson Tannahill of the Hudson’s Department Store family, was a major benefactor and supporter of the museum, donating many works during his lifetime. At his death in 1970, he bequeathed a large European art collection, which included works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, Henri Rousseau, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncuși, important works of German Expressionism, a large collection of African art, and an endowment for future acquisitions for the museum. Part of the current support for the museum comes from the state government in exchange for which the museum conducts statewide programs on art appreciation and provides art conservation services to other museums in Michigan.
In 1922, Horace Rackham donated a casting of Auguste Rodin’s sculpture, The Thinker, acquired from a German
museum building. Sometime in the subsequent years the work was moved out of the building and placed on a pedestal in front of the building, facing Woodward Avenue and the Detroit Public Library across the street. In 1949, the museum was among the first to return a work that had been looted by the Nazis, when it returned Claude Monet’s The Seine at Asnières to its rightful owner. The art dealer from whom they had purchased it reimbursed the museum. In 2002, the museum discovered that Ludolf Backhuysen’s A Man-O-War and Other Ships off the Dutch Coast, a 17th-century seascape painting under consideration for purchase by the museum, had been looted from a private European collection by the Nazis. The museum contacted the original owners, paid the rightful restitution, and the family
allowed the museum to accession the painting into its collection, adding another painting to the museum’s already prominent Dutch collection. In 1970, Anna Thompson Dodge bequeathed the 18th-century French contents of the music room from her home, Rose Terrace, to the museum upon her death.
A 1976 gift of $1 million from Eleanor Ford created the Department of African, Oceanic and New World Cultures. On February 24, 2006, a 12-year-old boy stuck a piece of chewing gum on Helen Frankenthaler’s 1963 abstract work The Bay, leaving a small stain. The painting is valued at $1.5 million as of 2005, and is one of Fran-
kenthaler’s most important works. The museum’s conservation lab successfully cleaned and restored the painting, which was put back on display in late June 2006. It was reported on May 25, 2013 that the city-owned collection was at risk of sale should the city of Detroit file for Chapter 9
AN
OUTLET FUTURE FOR THE
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Edsel Ford commissioned murals by Diego Rivera for DIA in 1932. Composed in fresco style, the five sets of massive murals are known collectively as Detroit Industry, or Man and Machine. The murals were added to what had been a courtyard; it was roofed over when the work was executed. Widely held to be great works of art today, this was not necessarily the case when they were completed. Architect Henry Sheply, a close friend of Cret’s would write:
“These [murals] are harsh in color, scale and composition. They were designed without the slightest thought given to the delicate architecture and ornament. They are quite simply a travesty in the name of art.”Their politically charged themes of proletariat struggle caused lasting friction between admirers and detractors. During the McCarthy era, the murals survived only by means of a prominent sign which identified them as legitimate art; the sign further asserted unambiguously that the political motivations of the artist were “detestable”. Today the murals are
celebrated as one of the DIA’s finest assets, and even “one of America’s most significant monuments”.
The building also contains intricate iron work by Samuel Yellin, tile from Pewabic Pottery, and architectural sculpture by Leon Hermant.
REFERENCES
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Jump up ^ Corley, Irvin (April 30, 2003).2003–04 Budget Analysis City of Detroit Memorandum to Graham Beal, Director, Arts Department. Retrieved on November 10, 2007. “The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States and contains an encyclopedic art collection worth over one billion dollars.” ^ Jump up to: a b Detroit Institute of Arts. About the DIA. Retrieved December 6, 2010. Jump up ^ AIA Detroit Urban Priorities Committee, (1-10-2006).Top 10 Detroit Interiors Model D Media Jump up ^ “The Puppets Are Coming, The Puppets Are Coming! Detroit Institute of Arts to unveil new puppet gallery December” (Press release). dia.org. 22 November 2010. Retrieved 2011-05-16. ^ Jump up to: a b The Architecture of the Detroit Institute of Arts, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1928 ^ Jump up to: a b Ferry, W. Hawkins, The Buildings of Detroit: A History, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan, 1968 ^ Jump up to: a b “It All Began with an Art Show”. Detroit News (detnews.com). November 6, 2007. Retrieved 2010-09-20. Jump up ^ Berman Ann E. (July 2001).The Edsel & Eleanor Ford House. Architectural Digest. Retrieved January 22, 2012. ^ Jump up to: a b Schjeldahl, Peter (28 November 2011). “The Painting on the Wall”. The New Yorker (Condé Nast): 84–85. Retrieved 12 January 2012. Jump up ^ Stremmel, Kerstin (2004). Realism. Taschen. p. 80–81. ISBN 978-3-8228-2942-4. Retrieved 12 January 2012. Jump up ^ Vivian Baulch and Patricia Zacharias (July 11, 1997). “The Rouge plant – the art of industry”. The Detroit News (detnews.com). Retrieved 2011-02-24. Jump up ^ White, Theo B., Paul Philippe Cret: Architect and Teacher, The Art Alliance Press, Philadelphia, 1973, p.33-34. Jump up ^ Gonyea, Don (2009). “Detroit Industry: The Murals of Diego Rivera”. National Public Radio. Retrieved 12 January 2012. Jump up ^ Freudenheim, Tom L. (14 August 2010). “When the Motor City Was a Symbol of Strength”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 January 2012. ^ Jump up to: a b Lucy Ament (January 22, 2008). “The New DIA: The Architects”. Model D Media. Retrieved 2010-12-06. Jump up ^ Linett, Peter (January 2009).Focus on the Detroit Institute of Arts. Curator: The Museum Journal. Retrieved December 6, 2010. Jump up ^ “Masterpiece Back On View After Gum Incident”. Detroit Institute of Arts. June 30, 2006 Jump up ^ Serena Maria Daniels, Michael H. Hodges and Christine Ferretti (May 24, 2013).Orr spokesman: DIA failed to move quickly to protect assets. The Detroit News. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Judith H. Dobrzynski (August 1, 2012).Where There’s a Mill, There’s a Way. Wall Street Journal Jump up ^ http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibitions.aspx Detroit Institute of Arts calendar of events Jump up ^ Hodges, Michael H. (September 8, 2003).Fox Theater’s rebirth ushered in City’s renewal. Michigan History, The Detroit News Jump up ^ Fash Bash 2011 at the Detroit Institute of Arts. dbusiness.com, July–August 2012. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Cohen, Patricia (August 8, 2012).Suburban Taxpayers Vote to Support Detroit Museum. New York Times Jump up ^ Laurén Abdel-Razzaq (August 8, 2012), Detroit Institute of Arts tax easily passes in Wayne, Oakland The Detroit News. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNI NOFFS
TELL DETROIT WHY THE DIA IS WORTH SAVING
MAIL THIS CUT-OUT TO : 2 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48226