My spouse and I visited the Detroit Institute of the Arts
(DIA) on a Sunday afternoon in early July 2017. The museum is open Tuesdays
through Fridays from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm (with extended hours until 10:00 pm
on Fridays) and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm (closed on
Mondays). We spent about two hours at DIA, moving through each gallery and
exhibit at a brisk pace, but you could easily spend an entire day if you want
to fully investigate every painting and item on display. Adult admission is
$14, with discounts for seniors, students, and children. Credit cards are
accepted for admission and other purchases.
The museum opened in 1927 in Detroit’s Cultural/Historic
District on Woodward Avenue, across the street from the main branch of the
Detroit Public Library and diagonally across the street from the Detroit
Historical Museum (DHM). (The science center and African-American museum are nearby.)
Parking is available for a fee in an adjacent surface lot. Before you enter, do not miss the casting of Auguste
Rodin's sculpture “The Thinker”
on a pedestal in front of the old main entrance. DIA occupies a massive
white Italian Renaissance-style marble building; over the years, renovations
and additions were added using similar building materials and styles.
(Exteriorly, the result is cohesive; however, inside, navigating around is a
bit tricky – and even frustrating - at times.) The museum galleries cover several
floors, with both stair and elevator access between them. The museum offers
amenities including restrooms, an information desk, coatroom, bag check,
lockers, gift shop, and two dining options: Café DIA (an upscale self-serve cafeteria)
and Kresge Court (a gorgeous enclosed courtyard with lounge seating, small tables
for full-service dining [including wine, beer, and cocktails], and high-top
communal tables for studying/ reading/ creating).
The Detroit Institute of the Arts offers over 100 galleries
spread throughout 650,000-square feet of space. The extensive DIA collection includes works by Audubon, Bellini, Calder,
Cassatt, Cezanne, Chihuly, Church, Cole, Copley, Degas, Durer, Eakins, Gauguin,
Hassam, Homer, Kandinsky, O’Keeffe, Matisse, Monet, Munch, Picasso, Rodin, Rousseau,
Rubens, Sargent, Seurat, Soutine, Tiffany, van Eyck, van Gogh, Warhol, Wyeth,
and Whistler, among others. Besides works by prominent American and European artists,
the museum displays Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Islamic, African, and Asian art and
artifacts, as well as paintings, sculptures, furniture, and decorative arts
from the 18th through 20th centuries. The museum’s most famous feature was
commissioned in 1932 by Edsel Ford (son of automobile baron Henry Ford), who asked
Mexican muralist Diego Rivera to paint a series of four immense frescoes that
pay homage to the city’s industrial, working-class history. “Detroit Industry”, also nicknamed
“Man and the Machine”, surround the four upper and lower walls of the museum’s stunning
glass-enclosed central marble courtyard; when the sun streams through the glass
roof, the interplay of light, shadows, and colors is dazzling!
The artwork at
DIA is displayed in a unique way. Rather than categorizing works by type and
displaying all paintings or all sculptures together, the collection is instead
organized by country of provenance and chronology, as well as in other novel
ways. One set of interconnected galleries displayed paintings by theme –
morning, afternoon, and evening during the life of an aristocrat. We liked the
podiums and seats placed in certain rooms that allow patrons to ponder the insights
and explanations of specific components of particular paintings. Some galleries
offer clever interactive elements and features that appeal to children (such as
a sort of three-dimensional “I Spy” game, or a light table that shows a movie
illustrating how the wealthy dined).
We enjoyed our day at the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA),
not only for the collection itself but also for the beautiful building and the
manner in which the art was displayed/arranged.
