Detroit Institute of Arts Exhibitions May–December 2012

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tDETROIT — The Detroit Institute of Arts announces a number of exhibitions, which are free with museum admission unless otherwise noted.
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tOnce Upon a Time: Prints and Drawings that Tell Stories
tDecember 21, 2011–May 13, 2012

tTelling stories through prints and drawings is the subject of this exhibition of works from the DIA’s collection. It includes selections from familiar series, portfolios, and books, as well as several examples that have rarely or never been seen at the museum. Among them are David Hockney’s etchings from Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, a volume of Moby Dick with illustrations by Norman Rockwell, a copy of the 15th-century Nuremberg Chronicle, Wassily Kandinsky’s Klange, Henri Matisse’s Pasiphaë, Jim Dine’s Picture of Dorian Gray, and many more European and American works on paper from a variety of eras. This exhibition has been organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.
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t75th Annual Detroit Public Schools Student Exhibition
tApril 28–June 3, 2012

tNow in its 75th year, this annual exhibition features art created by students from dozens of Detroit public schools in grades K–12. Students submit paintings, drawings, ceramics, photographs, videos, collages and jewelry to a jury of local artists and Detroit public schools officials, who determine which works will be included in the show. The exhibition is free with museum admission.
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tAn opening reception for students and their families will be held on April 28 at 1 p.m.
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tThe Detroit Public Schools Student Exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Public Schools and is made possible with the support of the Ruth T. T. Cattell Education Endowment Fund and the Charter One Foundation.
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tPatti Smith: Camera Solo
tJune 1–September 2, 2012

tThis is the first American museum exhibition to focus on the photography of artist, poet, and performer Patti Smith. Smith's photographs are infused with personal meaning and highlight the rich relationships between art, architecture, poetry and the everyday. This selection of images from the past decade reveals the artists, poets, authors, family and friends from whom Smith draws inspiration. The exhibition includes 70 black and white gelatin silver prints and a small selection of original Polaroid prints and items from Smith’s personal collection.
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tIn the era of digital imaging and manipulation, Smith’s works champion the use of photography in its most classical sense: as a tool to document a “found” moment. She finds the poetic qualities of a particular time and place and captures that beauty on film. The photographs explore themes that have been significant in Smith’s work, including poets and writers, portraiture, travel, and art and architecture.
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tThe exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue featuring an interview with Smith by exhibition curator Susan L. Talbott, director and CEO of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.
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tThis exhibition was organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut.
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tFive Spanish Masterpieces
tJune 21–August 19, 2012

tWhen the DIA’s Melancholy Woman by Pablo Picasso returns this summer after having been on loan to several prestigious museums over the past two years, it will bring with it other masterworks by Spain’s most important artists. The DIA celebrates the painting’s return with Five Spanish Masterpieces, which comprises: Portrait of the Matador Pedro Romero, Francisco de Goya, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; The Holy Family with St. Anne and the Infant St. John the Baptist, El Greco, Museo del Prado, Madrid; Soft Construction with Boiled Beans, Salvador Dalí, Philadelphia Museum of Art;Portrait of a Man, Diego Velázquez, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Melancholy Woman, Pablo Picasso, Detroit Institute of Arts.
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tThe DIA is a generous lender, and grants dozens of loan requests every year from museums including the Louvre, the Prado, the National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan in New York, among many others. Melancholy Woman, a great example of Picasso’s celebrated Blue Period, has been featured in exhibitions in Zurich, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Paris and New York.
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tFive Spanish Masterpieces underscores the international importance of the DIA collection, and the substantial role that the DIA plays in spreading art, knowledge and culture in the United States and internationally. Lenders to the exhibition recognize the DIA as a significant museum that has shaped the history of American collecting.
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tPicasso and Matisse: The DIA’s Prints and Drawings
tJuly 11, 2012–January 6, 2013

tPablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Henri Matisse (1869–1954) were ground-breaking visionaries who constantly experimented with techniques and materials. This exhibition features almost all of the works by Picasso and Matisse in the museum’s prints and drawings collections, showcasing their revolutionary achievements that defined much of 20th-century art. This exhibition has been organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.
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tThe story of Picasso’s and Matisse’s stylistic progression and artistic range will be told through more than 100 prints and drawings, including exceptional works such as Matisse’s 1919 drawing The Plumed Hat and Picasso’s 1939 gouache The Bather by the Sea. Other highlights include Matisse’s famous series Jazz and Picasso’s etchings for the Dream and Lie of Franco, as well as many linoleum cuts by both artists. The DIA’s 13 paintings and two bronze sculptures on permanent display will be on view in the museum’s modern art galleries.
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tFabergé: The Rise and Fall, the Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
tOctober 14, 2012–January 21, 2013

tThis exhibition features more than 200 precious objects from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, home of the largest collection of Fabergé in the United States. The show traces Peter Carl Fabergé’s rise to fame, highlighting his business savvy, artistic innovations, and privileged relationship with the Russian aristocracy. Despite the firm’s abrupt end in 1918, the legacy and name of Fabergé continues to hold a place in popular culture.
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tVisitors will have the rare opportunity to glimpse imperial Russian treasures made by the House of Fabergé, including jewel-encrusted parasol and cane handles, an array of enameled frames, animals carved from semi-precious stones, and miniature egg pendants. The exhibition features four exquisite imperial Easter eggs. These one-of-a-kind objects, which took at least a year to create, have become synonymous with the name Fabergé. One stunning example is the Imperial Tsesarevich Egg, made of lapis lazuli, diamonds, and gold and opens to reveal a miniature portrait of young Alexei, the heir of Czar Nicholas II. The objects on view will be exhibited with text, images, and activities meant to help visitors imagine the ways in which such luxury items would have been manufactured in a workshop, displayed in a storefront, and used to adorn the interior of the imperial palace.
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tThe exhibition is organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the Detroit Institute of Arts.
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tTickets are $15 for adults, $8 for children, $12 per person for groups of 15+.