Portrait of Esther Burnham Henshaw, ca. 1800
attributed to William Jennys, American, 1774-1859
oil on canvas
oil on canvas
oil on canvas
transfer-printed glazed earthenware
photogravure printed in sepia ink on cream paper
daguerreotype with hand coloring
daguerreotype with hand coloring
daguerreotype with hand coloring
gelatin silver print
gelatin silver print
hand-tinted albumen print
oil on canvas
gelatin silver print
gelatin silver print with hand coloring
gelatin silver print
gelatin silver print with hand coloring
gelatin silver print with hand coloring
gelatin silver print with hand coloring
gelatin silver print with hand coloring
gelatin silver print with hand coloring
gelatin silver print with hand coloring
D-Cyphered: Portraits by Jenny Risher will take viewers on a photographic timeline that makes up the story of the Detroit hip-hop scene. Often overlooked by the movements in New York and Los Angeles, Detroit’s hip-hop history is deeply shaped by the various elements of Motown and Detroit techno. Since the emergence of Eminem and his movie 8 Mile, and the recognition of the genius of the late J. Dilla, Detroit has seen a deep underground scene emerge and gain national recognition. Through th...
The Detroit Institute of Arts will present a dossier exhibition featuring two masterworks of French eighteenth-century portrait sculpture lent from the Musée du Louvre. Created by the greatest sculptor of the Enlightenment, Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741–1828), the portraits depict two of America’s most iconic founders, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. As Guests of Honor, the portraits will be displayed in the company of selected works that similarly depict Franklin, Washington, and Robert...
Fusing art and fashion photography in ways that break down their long-established boundaries, The New Black Vanguard features vibrant color portraits, conceptual images, and fashion editorial photographs by groundbreaking Black photographers. Over 100 photographs–many found in traditional lifestyle magazines, ad campaigns, and museums, as well as on social media channels–open up conversations around the roles of the Black body and Black lives as subject matter.
The nineteen sculptures in this exhibit—made between 1850 and 2000—show different approaches American artists used to confront the past, shape the present, and hope for a brighter future. A bronze portrait transforms an American businessman into a Roman emperor. A pyramid of plywood reimagines the form of an ancient wonder. Abstract steel and fiberglass ice cream challenged notions of what a monument could be. Some were made for private commemoration and others for busy city streets. &...
Subjects from everyday life, local architecture and portraits are included in this exhibition that presents found photography drawn from the DIA’s and private collections in the U.S. Found photography is considered by museums and collectors as an “accidental” art form created by unknown and often untrained photographers. Rediscovered and recovered from flea and antique markets, online resale sites, in attics, yard sales or even found in the trash, found photography speaks to past eras, people an...
In this exhibition are over forty large-scale color and black-and-white photographs by Kwame Brathwaite. His work helped advance one of the most influential cultural movements of the 1960s, "Black Is Beautiful," when black women and men turned to natural hairstyles and African-inspired clothing. Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite is the first major exhibition dedicated to Brathwaite, a vital figure of the second Harlem Renaissance. Inspired by activist and black n...
The DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts) proudly presents the exhibition, James Barnor: Accra/London—A Retrospective, a comprehensive survey of the work of Ghanaian photographer James Barnor whose career spans more than six decades. A studio portraitist, photojournalist, and Black lifestyle photographer, Barnor was born in 1929 in the West African nation of Ghana. He established his famous Ever Young Studio in Accra in the early 1950s and devoted his early photography to documenting critical soc...
The Detroit Institute of Arts presents a survey of over 90 photographs by Russ Marshall whose black-and-white imagery was inspired by the Motor City’s streets, architecture, music and factory workers for over 50 years. Marshall was born in 1940 in the thriving coal-mining town of South Fork, Pennsylvania to a family of coal miners, farmers and industrial factory workers. His family relocated to Detroit in 1943. By the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Marshall had begun to phot...
The DIA welcomes Samuel F. B. Morse's painting Gallery of the Louvre as a "guest of honor" from June 16 to September 18, 2016.Gallery of the Louvre is on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art and also includes Morse's copy of Titian's famous portrait of the French King Francis I, made from the original at the Louvre. The 6.2 x 9-ft. Gallery of the Louvre depicts a gallery imagined by Morse, in which he included 38 miniature versions of what were then the Lou...
Detroit After Dark is a dramatic display of light and dark, a photography exhibition of works from the DIA's permanent collection. Detroit After Dark is free with general museum admission. General museum admission is free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. Detroit After Dark includes architectural studies, street scenes and graffiti, as well as some of Detroit’s famous night haunts, like jazz club Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, the legendary Grande Ballroom, an...
DIA Studio staff will help you snap a portrait with an instant film camera then use a variety of art-making materials, including beads, markers and collage papers, to decorate a 5-by-7 inch frame made from corrugated cardboard. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition James Barnor: Accra/London, on view through October 15.
Join Ypsilanti-based artist Jessy Butts for an opportunity to create a shrinky dink key chain or ornament of your own design! Drop-in to the Art Making Studio, draw a portrait and watch your artwork shrink to a third of its size and become 9 times thicker with this fun nostalgic material. This program is made possible by the PNC Foundation.
Join Detroit photographer Elonte Davis as he shares techniques, inspirations, and information on upcoming events and exhibitions with visitors. All participants will also create a polaroid portrait mixed media collage using a variety of art making materials like decorative papers, magazines, paint markers, and more. This program is made possible by the PNC Foundation.
Join Michigan Poet Laureate, Nandi Comer, and InsideOut Literary Arts for a creative writing workshop inspired by the photos of James Barnor. Participants will discuss and explore a variety of writing forms and techniques and find entry points and inspiration in an array of portraits that deepen connection to the social and political context of the exhibit. NANDI COMER is the Poet Laureate of Michigan. She is the author of two poetry collections, American Family: A Syndrome and Tapping Out. S...
(Mexico/France/2023—directed by Lila Avilés) Seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) is helping her aunts prepare for her father’s surprise birthday party. As the house becomes increasingly boisterous, her father’s mysterious absence grows more and more concerning. “There isn’t a false note in the tender Mexican drama Tótem With intricate staging and camerawork, and an expressionistically warm palette — along with charming appearances from the natural world — writer-d...
Iran/2023—directed by Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami | 77 min. Through a series of stirring vignettes, often humorous and always affecting, Iranian directors Asgari and Khatami follow people from all walks of life in contemporary Tehran. As they navigate cultural, religious, and institutional constraints, this audacious film captures the spirit and determination of people facing daily adversity, while offering a nuanced portrait of a complex society. The sole Iranian film selected by th...
USA/2022—directed by Harold Crooks and Judd Tully | 93 min. The Melt Goes On Forever chronicles the singular career of the elusive African-American art star David Hammons, from Watts rebellion era ’60s L.A. to global art world prominence today. Hammons’ category-defying practice–rooted in a deep critique of American society and the elite art world–is in the words of one art critic “an invitation to confront the fissures between races” as the artist seeks to go beyond the dominant culture and ...
Directed by Manuela Martelli / 2022 In this much-awarded movie, all seems fine in the comfortable Chilean bourgeois world of Carmen (played by Aline Kuppenheim) and her family. She has a summer house she’s renovating, and performs charitable works through her church. But when the family priest asks her to take care of an injured young man he has been sheltering in secret, Carmen is unwittingly drawn into the world of Chilean politics—with potentially disastrous consequences for her family. ...
China/2022 | Dir. Li Ruijun Two middle-aged people—Cao, a timid, frail woman and Ma, an unassuming farmer—are pushed into an arranged marriage in the poor rural province of Gaotai in northern China. Ma has little to offer beyond a small house and some barren land, but he’s a patient, skilled farmer, and over time their garden begins to thrive, as does their relationship, until their peaceful existence is threatened by encroaching urbanization, as the local government begins incentivizing land...
(Germany/2023—directed by Jialing Zhang) For decades, China has been monitoring its citizens using high-tech security and surveillance. In this fascinating documentary, Jialing Zhang (co-director of One Child Nation) immerses us in the daily reality of half a billion cameras pointed at people as they go about their daily lives, invasive neighborhood watch programs, employees monitored for stress levels, and a ”social credit” point system that has rewards for community service and penal...
Few movie experiences can be as stirring or memorable as a great documentary, and those who might have a little extra time these days will be glad to discover that there’s a superb collection of ten individual non-fiction films and series available on the YouTube platform. The films were produced by Netflix, but those who don’t have a paid subscription to that streaming service will be able to benefit from a new Netflix educational outreach program, allowing you to watch this series of...
A welcome conversation Over the past few months, important discussions in our country have expanded to include the cultural sector overall and art institutions in particular. The DIA has recently become part of this conversation – a conversation that I welcome and encourage. The role of the arts -- the role of the DIA – and its impact on social issues is a topic on which we have focused much energy, time and thought over the past several years and one that deserves even more of ou...
My America I was no older than ten when I first came to America. It was a family trip and we visited New York City, Washington, D.C., and some cities in Florida. I remember the skyscrapers in Manhattan, those long cars called limos, the Spanish spoken in the streets, and the heat shock in Miami when we exited the airport. All were bigger, faster, more charged with energy and, even though I lived in Madrid, I felt like someone from a remote village who, for the first time, had come to a big ci...
Exploring our identity as Detroiters The holiday season is a time when some go home to be with family and friends. We take a trip each year to Spain to see my family and celebrate the New Year. Now that I am a U.S. citizen, I enjoy having two homes, and I am sad when I leave Detroit. Throughout my life, I have been fortunate to travel to different countries. If you think about it, growing up in Spain, one can take a plane to get to France, Italy or Portugal in an hour or so. All these Europea...
Every time I leave my third-floor office and go down to the DIA galleries, I encounter a new adventure, a learning opportunity, a moment of delight, and an empathetic connection with others. Engaging with the collection and sharing it with our friends always brings new insights. During the last decade at the DIA, we have created experiences that help each visitor find personal meaning in art. In the upcoming years, we would like those moments of personal meaning to become shared experiences with...
DFT @ HOME is a virtual screening room that presents new Detroit Film Theatre selections every week, all week, at your convenience. In addition to providing access to the best new international feature films and documentaries as they become available, the DIA will receive revenue from every ticket sold, helping to assure that when the current crisis is over, the DFT’s beloved 1927 auditorium will be ready to greet you again. New this week The Wild Goose Lake (China/France/...
In honor of Robert S. Duncanson Over Labor Day weekend, while I was preparing this newsletter, I read the fascinating life story of the African American 19th century painter, Robert S. Duncanson. I was especially interested in his trip to Europe during the 1860s, to learn the great art of the British, Italian and French masters. Other fellow American artists, like Frederic E. Church, made similar trips during this time. However, in an era where many black Americans were still enslaved, D...
DFT @ HOME is a virtual screening room that presents new Detroit Film Theatre selections every week, all week, at your convenience. In addition to providing access to the best new international feature films and documentaries as they become available, the DIA will receive revenue from every ticket sold, helping to assure that when the current crisis is over, the DFT’s beloved 1927 auditorium will be ready to greet you again. New this week The Booksellers (USA/2019—directed by D.W. You...
An Inside Look Last month, I had the opportunity to take part in a lengthy interview with the publication Antiques and The Arts Weekly, speaking about the museum’s priorities, our financial position, exciting new acquisitions and upcoming exhibitions. Read the full article below, or read on the Antiques and The Arts website here >(opens in new window) Q&A: Salvador Salort-Pons PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 26, 2021 Salvador Salort-Pons has been at the Detroit Ins...
Through exploration of portraiture and self-portraiture across time and cultures in the DIA’s collection, students will understand how artists use pose, symbolism, clothing, facial expression, objects and other details to communicate information about people’s identity in portraits and their place within their culture.
Using Jean-Antoine Houdon’s portraits of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington at the Detroit Institute of Arts, students will explore the life stories of these figures to deepen their understanding of the importance of individual political and social contributions during the American Revolutionary period.
Students call upon their own life experiences and imagination in these drawing activities as they explore what elements can be used to create a still life, portrait, and self-portrait.