Wizah Network - Journalist - Eric Linge's Article.

High Culture Warehouse Rub the Brass Ass By Eric Linge

It hardly looks controversial. With its imposing arched entranceways and its white stone façade, it looks rather distinguished. The hulking building does suffer from some boxiness, but it hardly looks controversial. The edifice houses the Detroit Institute of Arts (colloquially, DIA), the fifth largest art collection in the United States and one of the best. Despite the staid exterior, the DIA is a progressive museum – so progressive at times as to be controversial.

The murals in Rivera Court might be the most famous works at the DIA and certainly raised some ire last century. With the backing of Edsel Ford in the early 1930s, Mexican artist Diego Rivera was asked to paint a series of frescos in the DIA. The result was “Detroit Industry," four walls densely packed with scenes of aerodynamically-styled people, engaged in diverse aspects of Detroit industry, dominated by factory workers toiling on automobile assembly lines. Mr. Rivera finished the murals in 1933, and later that year he would cause a public storm by painting a mural in Rockefeller Center that included a portrait of Lenin. People were already ticked in Detroit and accusing the DIA’s murals of being pornographic, sacrilegious and maybe a little communist. Mr. Rivera himself was steadfastly communist, even living with Trotsky for a while. The Rockefeller Center mural was destroyed. “Detroit Industry” narrowly escaped destruction, and its laboring figures and industrial structures are as hyper today as they were in 1933.

Rivera Court is the geographical center of the museum. The rest of the art collection is in galleries surrounding. The collection is vast in scope, attempting to cram all of art history into one building. There is also an old movie palace-style theater showing foreign, independent and classic films; a museum store with classy gifts; a coffee shop in a grand setting; and a stylish and modern cafeteria with good food. Part of the museum is closed for renovation and expansion, but even still, there is an entire day’s worth of art to view. Add to this the “Remix” of the DIA, and it is definitely worth the trip from Sandusky. Plus, the Cleveland Museum of Art is closed until Fall 2007. (Toledo Museum of Art is still open.)

One of the museum’s leading volunteers, a man who spends at least 8 hours a week walking the galleries of the DIA, Clif Levin, gave FunCoast a quirky tour. We began at “Detroit Industry.” “Take a look at the shape of that machine,” he said to me. On the wall was painted a huge steel orifice that looked like a bagel. Suspended partly into the bagel’s hole was a steel cylinder. “What’s that look like to you?”

I was silent, thinking it looked like something regarding consensual adults, but I didn’t want to be crude, especially in this distinguished museum.

“Does that look like an ear?” Clif asked about the bagel shape. “Yeah.” I gave a slight laugh, “I was going to say something else, but yeah, that looks like an ear.”

Clif is usually so gentle in his mannerisms, and his laugh is usually so soft and light. But a huge laugh welled in his belly. “What were YOU going to say?” I acquiesced and said it looked like an ear with a giant Q-tip being stuck in it. “Oh you. I never thought of that. You are bad,” he said, still chuckling.

Clif and I zigzagged to other scenes on the wall, and he pointed out a scene high on a wall with a group of people gathered around a baby. This is the allegedly sacrilegious scene. It’s supposed to be a baby being immunized in a laboratory, but the baby’s puff of blond hair looks like a halo, and the scientists could theoretically look like the wise men.

“Each area has so much to say, and I can stand here for hours and just look at it and find all kinds of things,” Clif said. The murals are filled with portraits of real people and hidden meanings and allusions. “Where do I want to go next?”

We breeze through the Great Hall, a giant cavern of a room with notable Realist paintings high on the walls and suits of armor in glass cases on the floor. All visitors pass through the Great Hall at some point. We duck into the south wing of the museum, where the heart of the permanent collection is displayed in an innovative but temporary arrangement called Remix. Because of construction, some of the museum is closed, but because the art is “remixed,” the DIA is almost better this way.

That being said, there’s an interactive exhibit at the museum previewing what the DIA will look like when construction is finished in late 2007, and the remodeled DIA is going to look good. For a preview of what the design motif will look like, take a stroll through the already remodeled Café DIA, and if you like Remix, don’t fret because the remodeled DIA will continue to be progressive in the way it displays its art.

As for the present, while the galleries of most big museums are filled with art of a common historical period, the galleries of DIA Remix are filled with paintings of similar theme, regardless of historical period or nationality. Instead of a room for French Renaissance, for instance, there is a room for portraits. The portrait room has portraits from the Renaissance, the 1800s and 1900s. There is also a self-portrait room that includes a famous one by Van Gogh. Most of the museum’s most famous works are on display, making Remix a sort of greatest hits compilation.

Clif said, “The interesting thing about Remix is to see the juxtapositions. Sometimes I enjoy seeing pictures next to each other that don’t necessarily go together.” We came into the room whose theme is “Everyday Life.” On one wall are two of the museum’s most popular and pleasing works, “The Nut Gathers” and “Leisure Hours,” both from 19th century France. On the wall to their right are three different paintings, each in a different style, from a different period, but all relating to musical instruments. “These three crack me up. I have NEH-ver been able to figure out why this is the flute player,” said Clif, gesturing to a big canvas with bright and solid-colored squares painted in paint so thick it looks like ceramic tiles. An information card says flute music coming from a neighbor’s apartment inspired the American artist to paint this abstract work in 1992.

Clif gestures to the other two paintings. One is an old man playing a pipe painted by a French artist in 1642. The other is a boy playing a clarinet in the street painted by an American in 1953. Clif gives a light chuckle. “This is an interesting juxtaposition,” he said. We continue through the European and American paintings. To name but a sample, there are works by Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, German Expressionists, Flemish and Italian artists and paintings by Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol.

We go through a room of Christian art and into the not to be missed Asian and Islamic rooms. Calligraphy is traditionally the most prized art in Islam, and the Persian Koran from 1425 - 50 is a beautiful sight to behold. “It just amazes me,” said Clif about this Koran. “The time intensiveness, the effort.” Also, in the East Asian room, Clif points out there is proof that money does grow on trees.

Our path lead us last to the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, African and Native American galleries. Clif said the mummies are a “big hit with folks.” On display there is also a section of a gate that surrounded Ancient Babylon. It was clad in blue tile and is actually quite pretty. The DIA’s collection of European and American painting is strong, but don’t neglect the other galleries. Some might say they are even stronger than the European or American. The African art is particularly renowned.

After a last look at “Detroit Industry,” our final stop was the Brass Ass – not the official name. Near the DIA’s front doors where people stand in line for tickets is a statue of a donkey made from brass, the only piece of art in the museum patrons are allowed to touch. When you come to the DIA you can see for yourself what happens to art after years of touching. Kids especially like to give the donkey a rub.

Clif plopped his hands on the donkey’s back. It is now rubbed shiny and smooth after years of oily hands doing the same thing. Clif said, “He was intricately designed all the way around, and he isn’t anymore.”

Rubbing the donkey is just one more progressive piece of this museum, which, indeed, is more than just a museum, but an entire cultural experience. Friday nights are an especially good time to visit because there are concerts in the galleries, and don’t forget the theater, the Detroit Film Theater, either. Once a month there is also an elegant Sunday morning brunch served with a classical music concert. On any given day of the week there are also lectures, art history classes and art-making workshops for kids and adults, and, as cheesy as it sounds, so much more. FunCoast would recommend coming to the DIA before its grand reopening and again after its grand reopening in late 2007.

Sidebar

A new temporary exhibit, “African American Art from the Walter O. Evans Collection,” opens April 9th. Walter Evans is a collector with a trove of African-American paintings from the 19th and 20th century, and it’s on display from April 9th to July 2nd.

Free, guided tours of the complete DIA Wednesdays & Thursdays at 1 p.m., Fridays at 1 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays & Sundays at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Meet in Rivera Court. There are also portable recorders available for self-guided tours.

Address: 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI Phone: 313.833.7900 Price: $6 per adult, $3 per child Hours: 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Friday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday CLOSED Monday and Tuesday

Directions: West on I-80/I-90 for 38 miles. Exit at the I-280 exit, then I-280 North. Go 12 miles. Exit on I-75 North to Detroit. Go 55 miles and stay on I-75 through downtown Detroit. Exit on Warren, and go left (west). Turn right on Woodward, and then the first right on Farnsworth. There is an underground parking garage right there on the corner.

The website: DIA.org The website is your one-stop-shop for information on events and education programs, the theater schedule, concert listings, exhibit information, et cetera.


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