Detroit Institute of Arts Exhibitions January–December 2017

Updated Jan 17, 2017

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Exhibitions are free with museum admission unless otherwise noted.

Hours: Tuesdays–Thursdays, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m.–10 p.m.; Saturdays–Sundays, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Admission: $12.50 adults, $6 ages 6–17, $8 seniors (ages 62+). Free for DIA members and residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

Detroit after Dark: Photographs from the DIA Collection

Through April 23

This exhibition features photographs of Detroit at night, beginning with rare after-hours views by Robert Frank from 1955 along with architectural studies, street scenes, graffiti and otherworldly vignettes found in photos by Jon DeBoer, Scott Hocking, Ralph Jones, Rob Kangas, Dave Jordano, Russ Marshall and Tom Stoye. Most of the photographers are native Detroiters. This exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The exhibition also features images of Detroit’s legendary night haunts like the jazz club Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, the Grande Ballroom and punk and garage rock dens such as Bookie’s Club and the Gold Dollar.

A section on musicians features photographs by Doug Coombe, Russ Marshall, Jenny Risher, Sue Rynski, Steve Shaw and Leni Sinclair, including nighttime portraits of Detroit's hip-hop legends Awesome Dre and Guilty Simpson, among others.

Link to media kit: http://www.dia.org/about/mediakit-detroitafterdark.aspx

The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals

Through April 16

About 140 prints, rare books and serving manuals from the Getty Research Institute collection and private collections illustrate the elaborate monuments and sculptures made of food that were an integral part of street festivals as well as court and civic banquets in Europe in the 16th to 19th centuries. The exhibition has been organized by the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.

Highlights include:

Two copies of the first illustrated cookbook in Europe, the Opera, by Bartolomeo Scappi, who served as private chef to Pope Pius V in the 1570s; several prints from Nicolas I de Larmessin’s “Suite of Fanciful Costumes” depicting culinary characters such as “The Cook” and “The Baker,” fashionably attired in the tools of their trades, and styled in the manner of 18th-century French fashion plates; and

“Palace of Circe,” a monumental table centerpiece by British culinary historian Ivan Day, sculpted entirely from sugar paste, and based on a design from an 18th-century serving manual by the French culinary authority Menon.

Link to media kit: http://www.dia.org/about/mediakit-edible.aspx

Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement

July 23–October 22, 2017


This exhibition showcases art by African American artists who formed collectives during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. These collectives consisted of artists working together in distinct groups to make art for African American audiences that asserted black identity and racial justice. The exhibition includes 25 paintings, sculptures, installations and photographs produced by artists working in and around five important collectives from this era. Situated within the story of these collectives is the Detroit Rebellion of 1967. This exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The DIA and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History are collaborating to develop exhibitions as part of a community-wide remembrance of the Detroit Rebellion of July 1967. The exhibitions, each taking a different approach, will complement one another.

Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage

October 22, 2017–January 14, 2018


This exhibition focuses on American artist Frederic Church’s paintings done in the Middle East, Athens and Rome. Church was the most popular and financially successful painter in mid-19th-century America, best known for his large paintings of wild places in North and South America, the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. But from the late 1860s until the late 1870s, many of his most important paintings represented ancient cities or buildings that he had seen on his 1867 to 1869 trip to the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

While Church’s paintings of New World subjects are primarily concerned with nature, his Old World subjects are concentrate more on human history. This exhibition brings together almost all of Church’s most important paintings of the Middle East, Athens and Rome in order to explore the reasons motivating this major shift in his artistic practice.

The exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Generous support has been provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The exhibition will travel to two additional venues in 2018: Reynolda House Museum of Art in Winston-Salem, NC from Feb. 8 to May 13, 2018 and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT from June 3 to Aug. 26, 2018. 

This is a ticketed exhibition.

Monet: Framing Life

October 22, 2017–March 4, 2018


This intimate exhibition focuses on an important painting in the DIA collection—Claude Monet’s “Gladioli” (c. 1876). Monet created this work during his residency in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil between late 1871 and early 1878. Monet’s time in Argenteuil was especially productive, for it was here that he and fellow avant-garde painters formed the group now known as the Impressionists. By bringing “Gladioli” together with 11 other Argenteuil paintings by Monet and fellow impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the exhibition presents a more comprehensive story about the creation of “Gladioli” and how it fits into Monet’s body of work as well as the history of Impressionism more broadly. This exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

This is a ticketed exhibition.

Image removed.

Exhibitions are free with museum admission unless otherwise noted.

Hours: Tuesdays–Thursdays, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m.–10 p.m.; Saturdays–Sundays, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Admission: $12.50 adults, $6 ages 6–17, $8 seniors (ages 62+). Free for DIA members and residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

Detroit after Dark: Photographs from the DIA Collection

Through April 23

This exhibition features photographs of Detroit at night, beginning with rare after-hours views by Robert Frank from 1955 along with architectural studies, street scenes, graffiti and otherworldly vignettes found in photos by Jon DeBoer, Scott Hocking, Ralph Jones, Rob Kangas, Dave Jordano, Russ Marshall and Tom Stoye. Most of the photographers are native Detroiters. This exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The exhibition also features images of Detroit’s legendary night haunts like the jazz club Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, the Grande Ballroom and punk and garage rock dens such as Bookie’s Club and the Gold Dollar.

A section on musicians features photographs by Doug Coombe, Russ Marshall, Jenny Risher, Sue Rynski, Steve Shaw and Leni Sinclair, including nighttime portraits of Detroit's hip-hop legends Awesome Dre and Guilty Simpson, among others.

Link to media kit: http://www.dia.org/about/mediakit-detroitafterdark.aspx

The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals

Through April 16

About 140 prints, rare books and serving manuals from the Getty Research Institute collection and private collections illustrate the elaborate monuments and sculptures made of food that were an integral part of street festivals as well as court and civic banquets in Europe in the 16th to 19th centuries. The exhibition has been organized by the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.

Highlights include:

Two copies of the first illustrated cookbook in Europe, the Opera, by Bartolomeo Scappi, who served as private chef to Pope Pius V in the 1570s; several prints from Nicolas I de Larmessin’s “Suite of Fanciful Costumes” depicting culinary characters such as “The Cook” and “The Baker,” fashionably attired in the tools of their trades, and styled in the manner of 18th-century French fashion plates; and

“Palace of Circe,” a monumental table centerpiece by British culinary historian Ivan Day, sculpted entirely from sugar paste, and based on a design from an 18th-century serving manual by the French culinary authority Menon.

Link to media kit: http://www.dia.org/about/mediakit-edible.aspx

Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement

July 23–October 22, 2017


This exhibition showcases art by African American artists who formed collectives during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. These collectives consisted of artists working together in distinct groups to make art for African American audiences that asserted black identity and racial justice. The exhibition includes 25 paintings, sculptures, installations and photographs produced by artists working in and around five important collectives from this era. Situated within the story of these collectives is the Detroit Rebellion of 1967. This exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The DIA and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History are collaborating to develop exhibitions as part of a community-wide remembrance of the Detroit Rebellion of July 1967. The exhibitions, each taking a different approach, will complement one another.

Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage

October 22, 2017–January 14, 2018


This exhibition focuses on American artist Frederic Church’s paintings done in the Middle East, Athens and Rome. Church was the most popular and financially successful painter in mid-19th-century America, best known for his large paintings of wild places in North and South America, the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. But from the late 1860s until the late 1870s, many of his most important paintings represented ancient cities or buildings that he had seen on his 1867 to 1869 trip to the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

While Church’s paintings of New World subjects are primarily concerned with nature, his Old World subjects are concentrate more on human history. This exhibition brings together almost all of Church’s most important paintings of the Middle East, Athens and Rome in order to explore the reasons motivating this major shift in his artistic practice.

The exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Generous support has been provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The exhibition will travel to two additional venues in 2018: Reynolda House Museum of Art in Winston-Salem, NC from Feb. 8 to May 13, 2018 and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT from June 3 to Aug. 26, 2018. 

This is a ticketed exhibition.

Monet: Framing Life

October 22, 2017–March 4, 2018


This intimate exhibition focuses on an important painting in the DIA collection—Claude Monet’s “Gladioli” (c. 1876). Monet created this work during his residency in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil between late 1871 and early 1878. Monet’s time in Argenteuil was especially productive, for it was here that he and fellow avant-garde painters formed the group now known as the Impressionists. By bringing “Gladioli” together with 11 other Argenteuil paintings by Monet and fellow impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the exhibition presents a more comprehensive story about the creation of “Gladioli” and how it fits into Monet’s body of work as well as the history of Impressionism more broadly. This exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

This is a ticketed exhibition.