Highlights: Detroit Institute of Arts

I'm back! The reasons why I was back and forth to and from Michigan over the past couple weeks is a long story and not really relevant so I won't get into it here, but while I was there I was able to visit the fantastic DIA not once, but twice! I've heard that it's the 6th largest museum in the United States, and I believe it. We barely were able to cover the whole museum in two days.

There's been a lot of talk about the DIA in recent weeks, due to the city of Detroit filing for bankruptcy and it's crippling $18 billion debt. Many people are suggesting the city, which owns the museum, sell off its art collection which is valued at about $2 billion. And many more, myself included, are adamant in how much of a BAD IDEA that would be, not even just for the sake of saving the art from falling into the hands of private collectors who would be unlikely to exhibit it publicly.

For a good overview of the situation and a set of compelling arguments against selling the collection (which include the fact that $2 billion hardly makes a dent in the total debt, that much of the art is protected by charitable donation law, and that the DIA's collection is one of the only true tourist spots left in the city that actually brings in revenue), check out this great article on Hyperallergic:
http://hyperallergic.com/76416/new-yorker-art-critic-justifies-looting-of-detroit-museum/

In the meantime, as I did with the Cleveland museum, I just wanted to showcase the museum and some of my favorite works in its collection.

Henri Matisse, The Window, 1916

One of the strengths of the DIA is their modern collection, including a painting that is probably on my Top 5 list of all time, Matisse's lovely The Window as seen above. I can't get over the colors and how serene and lovely it is. I am seriously obsessed with this painting. It's also surprisingly large, at nearly four feet tall. The department also hosts a large room full of German Expressionist work, including some excellent pieces by Marc, Kandinsky, Kirchner, Beckmann, Dix, and Schmitt-Rottluff, and a number of lovely works from Vincent van Gogh, Joan Miro, and Picasso. Very impressive indeed!

Franz Marc, Animals in a Landscape, 1914

Pablo Picasso, Woman Seated in an Armchair,
1923

The DIA also boasts an incredible selection of American, European (the third floor consists of a huge collection of Dutch Golden Age painting, as well as Western European Rococo, Neo-Classical, and Romantic painting, decorative art, and furniture, to an extent I've hardly ever seen except perhaps at the Metropolitan), Contemporary, and most significantly, non-Western works. Their non-western section in particular, taking up the entire ground floor and divided into a variety of different wings, is incredible. Never before have I seen such an extensive and inclusive collection of African art, and the Islamic section is to die for. 

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Wedding Dance, 1566

Rachel Ruysch, Flowers in a Glass Vase, 1704

John Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781

John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, 1771

It is difficult to get images off the DIA's website and I can't find many of the non-Western pieces elsewhere on the internet, so I direct you to the following links to peruse their amazing collections yourself!
Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous America
Arts of Asia and the Islamic World

The Diego Rivera Courtyard in the center of the second floor of the museum is an entire room covered in floor to ceiling murals by Diego Rivera, one of the most famous Mexican painters, the husband of Frida Kahlo, and one of Detroit's most famous citizens. The images depict Detroit in its golden days of the automobile industry.