SNAPSHOTS: The Detroit Industry Murals

Some of the most awe-inspiring pieces of artwork you'll ever see can be found within the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA). Walking through the gallery you'll step inside a glass ceiling atrium - Rivera Court and be surrounded by four walls displaying 27 panels capturing Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Murals.  These murals completed between 1932 - 1933, are considered to be one of Rivera's most successful works and one of the best examples of Mexican mural art in the US. You might of heard of Rivera's wife too - the infamous Frida Kahlo.

Detroit Industry Mural captures the 1930's daily life of the Ford Motor Company downriver plant, River Rogue. The north and south walls show the plant workers, whereas the east and west walls which are inter-spaced by arches and doorways show the journey of life. But also of the manger overseeing everything alongside a worker. Both are given equal stature and status.

The equality Rivera prescribed to worker and manager reflects his Marxist ideals. He was an artist who believed art belonged both on and in public space rather then hidden away in private galleries. But it wasn't only his Marxist beliefs that caused controversy when this piece was revealed - people were shocked at the depiction of workers of all races working alongside one another to the nudes which were named pornographic rather then artistic, some even called it blasphemous.

I'm not sure the photographs capture just how huge and how incredible these murals are they are certainly worth spending time sitting and taking everything all in. It's even more incredible when you take note that it took Diego only 11 months to complete. NPR have a great little article and video showing Diego actually painting the mural, and of course you can see more full images of the work on the DIA website.



This is one of those pieces, one of those things in life that will sure make you feel small.

DETROIT: Stained Glass

The pieces of stained glass to me are some of the most mesmorising pieces the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) holds - you'll find the majority up on level 3 as you set outside the lifts - the lights behind them bright and welcoming you over. The work, the skill and the beauty that went into creating such early pieces astonishes me every time I visit. Rarely do I sit and just look at anything for a long period of time, in a gallery or otherwise but stained glass just grabs my attention - it feels so alive. Every time you look you notice something else, some detailed and something different. From the detailing upon a hand, the text upon a book or the lines around a person's eyes - it really is all about the details. Somewhat fitting I think for a Friday as we approach a weekend when we can hopefully relax a little, step away from the emails, loose ourselves in a couple of netflix shows.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

DETROIT: Chimera

If you ever happen to drive on I-75 through the north end of Detroit, before you reach the suburbs you might just happen to spy a massive Chimera upon a wall. Acting as a huge welcome sign to Detroit from the north, this huge piece, the largest mural in Michigan has entranced me ever since I moved to the state. Not only is it huge - it's 870 feet in size, but it's beautiful. The Chimera which the artist Kobbie Solomon describes as being a composite of the four Detroit sports teams (Detroit Lions, Detroit Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons) and the art which occurs daily within the building upon which the design was spray painted upon - the Russell Center. Built in 1915, the Russell Industrial Center was a hive of activity manufacturing parts for the big auto companies born out of Detroit, and during the war was home to manufacturing B-17 Flying Fortress Wings. Now it's home to over 150 small businesses and artists and is considered one of the key examples of positive urban redevelop within the city - oh and they were filming scene's for the next Transformers movie there the other week too!

It actually took my parents telling me over the weekend that Texas had song on the radio about Detroit - surprisingly it's never really made my radar living so close to city limits but there you go. While I've never been a huge Texas fan, I certainly can appreciate the they actually filmed the song in the city - and barely any ruin porn shots feature (yippie!!). It's a video that features many places now familiar to me - Woodward Avenue, Fox Threatre, Belle Isle to Campus Martius and Hitsville (Motown) many of the places which have appears on Dear Ms Leigh at some point or another.

And while we're talking about Detroit, make sure you check out my guest post over on Bethan's blog A Pretty Place to Play were I express my love and passion for exploring my home turf.

What's your favorite things and places to go around your home patch?

DETROIT: The DIA

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is credited as having one of the top art collections in the nation. No joke. This is why it's now a hot bed of topic and discussion when it comes to Detroit trying to file for bankruptcy, many people are eyeing up it's collection. Located in Midtown it's seen as one of the key players in the revival of the area and it's a great place to spend a couple of hours, ideally a day. 

The future of the DIA is a little up in the air, Christy's have been asked by Detroit's emergency manager Kevin Orr to value the whole collection. Orr argues he doesn't intend to sell any of the pieces but when it's value at a market value of $2.5 billion Detroit's creditors are eyeing it up. Personally I hope they don't sell anything from the DIA, granted pensions need to be paid, street lights turned back on but selling the DIA collection in the long term will solve nothing. The value of the collection is nothing compared to the $15 billions of debt the city has, plus removing the collection will do nothing to draw people back into the city, by removing a key attraction your removing their dollar spending money not only in the DIA but in the business and other museums around it. 

But that's my somewhat simplistic option on the matter. I'd love to know which side you fall on?

DETROIT: DLECTRICITY

Light Terrain by James Witherspoon - using spheres and lighting to explore the interactions of a responsive architectural landscape to pre-existing land and buildings around it.

On Friday night we headed into Mid and Downtown Detroit to check out the new contemporary light art festive DLECTCITY. Hosting national and international artists, the city played host to design, art and performances in the spaces and walls that make up this part of Detroit with the idea of lighting up the city and welcoming and challenging people to see these spaces in a new light - rather apt for Detroit. We even saw a dancing space monkey.

Sadly the trip Downtown coincided with a huge rain shower that hung over the city and the metro region so we didn't get to see too much. What we did glimpse was entertaining and was great to see so many people out even in the rain. It also became a great excuse to capture some photographs at night - even the blurry images of driving along Woodward captured through rain droplets came out with a great effect.

Detroit Institute of Arts Inside/Out in Royal Oak

Joe kept coming last week mentioning he'd seen random pieces of framed artwork on walls around downtown Royal Oak - little did we know that this was part of Detroit Institute of Arts [DIA] Inside/Out summer exhibition taking place around metro Detroit. It's now in it's third year of bringing framed high quality reproductions from the DIA collection out onto the streets. So on Saturday we took a short drive over to our next town Royal Oak to see the six pieces they had hanging up. Here's what we found;

Royal Oak Public Library - The Recitation by Thomas Wilmer Dewing. 

 The gardens around the library

Ariana Gallery, Main St - Eleanora of Toledo and Her Son by Agnolo Bronizo

Qdoba Mexican Grille, Main St - Staunch Friends by William Fredrick Yeamas 

Noir Leather, W. 4th St - Selene and Endymion by Nicolas Poussin

Pronto, S. Washington St - Warrior With Two Pages by Peter Paul Rubens

Decorations in the flower pots for the 4th of July. 

Comedy Castle - Corner of S. Troy and 4th St. - Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church

Close up of the the Cotopaxi frame.

All the artwork are within walking distance of each other and not only do you get to see some artwork but you get to see some of the downtown areas too. Hopefully we'll get to check out the pieces in Ferndale another weekend. 

Inside/Out exhibition map [Source].

The exhibition runs across Detroit and many of it's metro cities until the end of September in; Canton, Clawson, Clinton Township, Dearborn, Detroit, Ferndale, Gordeu City, Harrison Township, Northville, Royal Oak, Trenton, Troy and Waterford.

Would something like this interest you?