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Only Days Left to See Coffee, Tea, Chocolate Exhibit
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From the Director
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At the DIA creativity is at the center of many things that we do, and lately we have been envisioning ways we can bring the arts and sports together. I believe this partnership is a powerful one, which allows for new and inspiring connections to be made in our diverse communities.
Last month, for instance, we focused on the world of basketball and celebrated the accomplishments of Detroit Piston
Earl Lloyd, the first African American to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). We hosted many retired NBA players and lovers of the sport, many of whom flew in from all over the country to honor Lloyd's career and see a new documentary about his life, screened in our very own Detroit Film Theatre. Included among those in attendance were former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, a Pistons legend in his own right, and the River Rouge high school basketball team (above), sharply dressed in their official team blazers. I had never seen so many tall people enjoying the Rivera murals.
Three nights later, the DIA welcomed the Pistons for a team event--another highlight of the month. The team toured the art collection with DIA staff and enjoyed a dinner in the Great Hall while a DJ enlivened the evening with occasional musical interludes from one of the players, Andre Drummond. I enjoy seeing athletes in the museum. They are like artists in their own fashion. Artists and athletes are creative individuals, problem solvers who care very much about beauty--a beautiful play on the basketball court or a beautiful figure rendered on the canvas, both artistic expressions. In my remarks that evening, I told the players that I see them handling the basketball like painters employing their brushes. For those who love the sport, I am sure you agree that basketball is art in motion--I have personally seen some masterpieces at the Palace.
Some might think that my comments about art and sports are a bit bizarre. However, I am not the first one to think this way. Ancient Greeks and Romans saw the direct connection between
art and sports. In the Greek city of Olympia, where the ancient Olympics took place, the competition was not only among athletes but also among poets, painters, and others representing a number of artistic disciplines. As a matter of fact, the Olympic games were a celebration of the great accomplishments of the sports and the arts. The winners were crowned with laurel wreaths--the gold medals are more a phenomenon of our times.
If the Greeks and the Romans did it, I think the DIA can do it too. Stay tuned. We have plenty of opportunities in Detroit--a city with an extraordinary tradition of excellence in sports and the arts. We look forward to fostering and celebrating this relationship with all types of athletes and artists in the seasons to come.
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Salvador Salort-Pons
Director
Detroit Institute of Arts
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Exhibitions
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BITTER|SWEET
Coffee, Tea, & Chocolate
Through March 5, 2017
Special Exhibition Galleries South
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Cavalier and Lady Drinking Chocolate, 1690-1710, hand-colored engraving; Robert Bonnart, French. The Morgan Library and Museum, New York
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There are only five days left to see this exhibition featuring a diverse array of European ceramics, silver, sculpture, and paintings from the DIA's collection that relate to the service and consumption of coffee, tea, and chocolate.
While the three drinks were considered fashionable beverages when introduced to eighteenth-century European consumers, none of the plants required for their preparation was native to the continent: coffee arrived from Africa and the Middle East, tea from Asia, and chocolate from the Americas. The objects associated with these new hot drinks are placed in the context of the often oppressive means of bringing the ingredients to European tables.
This is the museum's first exhibition that engages all five senses. Sight, of course, with plenty of beautiful, finely wrought objects to look at, but smell, hearing, touch, and taste are represented as well.
In the first gallery, catch a whiff of freshly ground coffee beans or listen to selections from J. S. Bach's 1732
Coffee Cantata
, a comic opera encapsulating the debate in eighteenth-century Germany about the merits of coffee, Further on in the exhibition, two examples of ceramics are set aside for visitors to pick up and examine, comparing their textures, weights, and opacity.
We've saved taste for last with an area at the end of the exhibit to sample two different chocolate drinks--one based on an ancient Aztec recipe that incorporates chili peppers into the mix of cocoa, water, and honey; the other, from eighteenth-century France, is closer to the hot chocolate drunk today, combining milk, chocolate, sugar, and cinnamon spiced with cloves and black pepper.
Tickets for adults are $14 and $10 for Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb county residents. Children ages 6-17 are $7 and $5 for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county youngsters. Exhibitions are always free for DIA members, although complimentary timed tickets are necessary.
The exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Edible Monument
The Art of Food for Festivals
Through April 16, 2017
Schwartz Galleries of Prints and Drawings
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Costume of the Cook
, ca. 1690s, etching and engraving; Nicolas I de Larmessin, French. Lent by Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky, Los Angeles
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As banquets and festivals grew more elaborate, kitchens developed into a series of complex spaces dedicated to different parts of the meal. Specialized cooking methods required several ovens and new culinary tools. The more sophisticated fare also required experts specializing in particular parts of a meal, including pastry chefs and master carvers.
The emerging culinary professionals were defined by their specialized tools, what they did, and where they worked. In seventeenth-century Paris, the artist Nicolas I de Larmessin, well known for his prints of fashionable men and women, created elaborately dressed and accessorized culinary figures similar to French fashion plates. They were elegantly presented with their wares as a witty ensemble, with utensils and food products styled as couture.
Pastry cooks practiced their culinary arts with distinctive tools, baking pans, and large ovens in special kitchens. Pastry was sweet for pies and cakes, and savory when filled with meat and poultry. For the emerging specialists among culinary professionals, the art of carving was viewed as a tableside performance. According to contemporary writers, the carver should be young, hardy, handsome, steady on his feet and not touching the table, bow to those he is serving, and stand by until the end of the meal.
Caricatures of tradespeople who sold their wares in the streets first appeared in sixteenth-century collections known as Books of Trades. People were defined by their occupations or attributes, and dressed accordingly. Faces and figures also showed characteristics associated with the profession or a social type. In the eighteenth century, prints of tradespeople frequently had accompanying texts or verses about the vendors' street calls.
The Museum Shop features a selection of imported foods, recipe books, and table accessories relating to the exhibition.
The exhibition is organized by the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
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DETROIT AFTER DARK
Photographs from the DIA Collection
Through April 23, 2017
Albert and Peggy de Salle Gallery of Photography
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Negative Approach, Third Man Records Cass Corridor, 441 W, Canfield St, January 30, 2016
, 2016, pigment print; Doug Coombe, American. Museum Purchase, Funds from Albert and Peggy de Salle Charitable Trust
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In contrast to the characteristic evening stillness found in many of the photographs seen throughout this exhibition, shots of Detroit's music scene are a source of energy and life. Music and musicians have always found a home in concert halls, cocktail lounges, and other venues and photographers followed, among them Doug Coombe, Russ Marshall, Leni Sinclair, and Sue Rynski.
"In Detroit, you can see great legends or get a firsthand look at those on their way up. There is so much talent here and so many genres of music--it's always been more exciting to me than big, music-industry towns like Nashville, L.A., or New York," says Coombe, who befriended musicians while working in record stores before devoting his time to photography.
He goes on to say that "with every amazing music scene in Detroit--indie, blues, garage, hardcore--there's a great subculture that comes out at night to hear live music." The scene can get raucous, as in this photograph of a performance at Third Man Records. "I was just trying to take a good shot and not get my camera smashed, but I loved capturing the interaction of the fans and the audience with the band."
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THALASSA
Through June 26
Woodward Lobby
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Thalassa, 2011, plywood, steel, paper; Swoon (Caledonia Curry), American.
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Originally scheduled to return to solid ground in March, Thalassa will stay afloat above the Woodward Lobby until late June. Artist Caledonia Curry, known as Swoon, titled this massive sculpture after the ancient Greek goddess of the sea, who was seen as the
literal embodiment of the oceans. In an Aesop fable, she is a woman formed of sea-water rising from her native element.
Explore other parts of the world of water in drop-in workshops the weekend of Friday, March 3 to Sunday, March 5. Create your own underwater creature using a variety of art-making materials. Take your creature home or add it to a collaborative underwater scene on the walls of the Learning Center.
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Guests of Honor
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Looking Back to a Bright New Future, 2003, acrylic and ink on canvas, Julie Mehretu, American, born Ethiopia. Courtesy of the Artist
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The latest DIA Guest of Honor is Julie Mehretu's large-scale (95 x 119 inches), intricately layered
Looking Back to a Bright New Future, which highlights the idealism of new urban planning in postcolonial Africa. Drawings resemble schematic maps of planned neighborhoods, atlas-type markings of dots refer to economic centers, and colorful irregular shapes suggest countries in Africa. The density of imagery implies the range and complexity of issues facing African nations competing for a brighter future in the global economy.
Mehretu was born in Ethiopia in 1970. Her family fled the country in 1977 and moved to East Lansing. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Kalamazoo College and did a junior year abroad at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1997 from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.
The painting is on view in the second-floor contemporary galleries. This is not the work's first visit to the DIA. It was part of the special exhibition
Julie Mehretu: City Sitings at the museum from November 23, 2007 to March 30, 2008.
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Left:
John Barnard, 1744, marble; John Michael Rysbrack, Flemish. Lent by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, The Moses Lazarus Collection, Gift of Sarah and Josephine Lazarus, Bequest of Kate Read Blacque, in memory of her husband, Valentine Alexander Blacque, and Bequests of Mary Clark Thompson and Barbara S. Adler, by exchange, 1976
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John Barnard, 1743, terra cotta; John Michael Rysbrack, Flemish. Private Collection.
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Also recent guests of honor are a terracotta model and a
marble bust of a young boy by John Michael Rysbrack, a Flemish artist working in London. The model is on loan from a private collector and the bust from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Shown together for the first time, these immaculately preserved portraits provide a glimpse of Rysbrack's creative process. The sculptures, both of which the artist signed and dated, showcase both Rysbrack's mastery of modeling terracotta and his exceptional skill as a marble carver.
On the back of the marble bust, Rysbrack inscribed the name of his young sitter, John Barnard, the son of a British clergyman. The boy is fashionably outfitted in a Hussar's costume, the uniform of a Hungarian cavalryman. The fad for Hussar uniforms derived from England's sympathy for Hungary during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48), and they appeared often throughout the 1740s in portraits of children and adults alike. The two works are on display in the third-floor British portrait gallery.
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Detroit Film Theatre
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Kedi, a film about the hundreds of thousands of cats that have freely roamed through Istanbul for centuries, is not just another cat video. The
New York Times gave the film "four paws up," and according to
IndieWire, it is "the
Citizen Kane of cat documentaries." Claiming no owners, the cats of Istanbul live between two worlds, neither wild nor tame, gliding in and out of people's lives to bring joy and purpose to those they choose to adopt.
Kedi (Turkish for cat) plays the weekend beginning Friday, March 17, and again on Sunday, March 26. For more on the making of the film, click
here.
Noted author and journalist
A. O. Scott comes to the DFT on Friday, March 24 to discuss his idea that everyone is a critic. Using his career as chief film critic for the
New York Times as a starting point, he illuminates how critical thinking informs almost every aspect of artistic creation, civil action, and our interpersonal lives. In addition, Scott has chosen two films for the DFT 101 series of classics that have redefined the language of cinema:
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, a fiction/nonfiction hybrid that captures two actors performing a break-up scene over and over, and Robert Altman's
The Player, which blends suspense, comedy, and murder into a satire of modern Hollywood. Scott provides an introduction to the films, playing Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26.
The month closes with the Freep Film Festival, which offers a varied lineup of documentaries with strong connections to Detroit and Michigan. Festival selections will be shown in the DFT auditorium and the museum's Lecture Hall, as well other locations around town. The full schedule can be found at the DIA website
dft.org/dft or at
freepfilmfestival.com.
For more DFT information, including dates and times, or to purchase tickets, click
here.
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Detroit Institute of Awesome
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Immerse yourself in Japanese culture or the world of eighteenth-century American furniture makers in this month's Detroit Institute of Awesome activities. An animated film rarely seen outside of Japan is also on the schedule.
Join members of the Japan Society of Detroit Women's Club and Ikebana International in a celebration of Japanese Girls' Day, or
Hinamatsuri, with demonstrations of
ikebana flower arranging, tea ceremonies, and other traditional practices on Sunday, March 5, beginning at 1 p.m. Great for families with children of all ages. Presented by the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit.
Acquire an appreciation for eighteenth-century American furniture as members of the
Society of American Furniture Makers demonstrate traditional construction techniques on Saturday and Sunday, March 18 and 19. Enjoy a guided tour of the DIA's eighteenth-century furniture collection or participate in a tool-box building workshop. Artist demonstrations begin at 10 a.m.; tours run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every half hour, departing from the Great Hall; and the workshop runs from noon to 3 p.m. or as supplies last. Recommended for children 5 to 12 years old.
Rarely seen outside of Japan,
Ocean Waves (right) is a poignant, wonderfully detailed story of adolescence and the onset of adulthood. Taku and his best friend are headed back to school, but find their friendship tested by the arrival of Rikako, a beautiful new transfer student. When Taku joins her on a trip to Tokyo, the school erupts with rumors and the three friends are forced to come to terms with their changing relationships. The only
Studio Ghibli feature not to have received American release until now,
Ocean Waves plays Saturday and Sunday, March 11 and 12, at 2 p.m. Suggested for audiences 12 and older. Also showing is
Ghiblies, Episode 2, a Ghibli short never shown in this country.
Every
DIA Awesome weekend includes family-friendly guided tours, art-making workshops, gallery art games, and, on Sundays, drawing in the galleries. Activities are free with museum admission, except for the Animation Club screenings, which are free for members and $5 for the general public.
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| Inside|Out 2017 |
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The popular Inside|Out program, which brings high-quality reproductions of DIA masterpieces to communities throughout the metro area, is back for an eighth summer with more works per location.
New this year, the DIA is collaborating with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History to include ten objects from their permanent collection, the first time the DIA has incorporated reproductions from somewhere else in Inside|Out..
The reproductions will be in eleven communities from April to July, and then in another ten from August to October. Each community will have from seven to twelve images clustered within walking or bike-riding distance. Exact locations are still being determined and, once finalized, will be featured on an interactive map on the DIA's website.
Four venues--Detroit's Lafayette Park, Allen Park, the Detroit International Wildlife Refuge, and Highland Township--are participating for the first time. The International Wildlife Refuge, the first of its kind in North America, encompasses nearly 6,000 acres of habitat along the lower Detroit River and western shoreline of Lake Erie. The DIA will install Inside|Out in Gibraltar, Grosse Ile, and Trenton refuge sites, including at a new visitor center set to open this summer.
Spring 2017 communities are Brighton, Clawson, Detroit's Lafayette Park, Farmington, Franklin, Mount Clemens, Novi, Plymouth, Taylor, and Wayne. For the summer, artworks can be found in Allen Park, Auburn Hills, Clarkston, Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, Detroit Riverwalk, Highland Township, Hines Park, St. Clair Shores, Sterling Heights, and Troy.
Facebook users can follow Inside|Out updates and share their Inside|Out experiences on the
Inside|Out Facebook page
. People can also follow updates on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (@DIADetroit) using the hashtags #DIAInsideOut and #InsideOutUSA.
Inside|Out is sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
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Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48202
313.833.7900
ADMISSION
$12.50 adults, $8 seniors, $6 children
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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PARKING
Lighted, secure self-parking is available in the museum lot on John R, behind and across the street from the DIA..
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Kresge Court
Tue, Wed, Thur 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
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Sat., Sun 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
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