Museum Hopper

Over Thanksgiving, my family went to do a day in Detroit.  We started with a delicious lunch at Slow's and then headed over to the DIA to go to the joint special exhibit, Monet: Framing Life and Church: A Painter's Pilgrimage .   Monet really broke with tradition when he started painting in the outdoors.  It was really quite revolutionary.     I always enjoy learning about the relationships that the artists had with one another.  In the picture below, you can see Renoir painting Monet.  Monet also has many paintings of this exact garden and landscape. Renoir Monet After the Monet paintings, we went to the Church side of the exhibit.  I did not know much about Frederick Church before the exhibit.  It was interesting to learn about the trip he took with his family.  He took his wife and child on the trip across the middle east.  He did a number of sketches, paintings on site, but also did qui...

I met two girlfriends in the "D" last weekend for brunch and then two of us went on to the DIA new exhibit, Diego Rivera and Frido Kahlo in Detroit .   I had been looking forward to the exhibit since I did not know much about either of them.  I have always been fascinated by the mural in the DIA.   The exhibit is broken into three parts: pre, during and post Detroit.  We are introduced into the inspirations for their art.  Rivera was inspired by traditional Mexico and the plight of the working class.  Kahlo had been in an accident in her late teens -- this accident inspired all her work going forward as she believed the miscarriage she had in Detroit was caused by the earlier accident. One of the best parts of the exhibit was a deep dive into the Detroit Industry  painting.  They highlighted the development of the art and the reasons behind the different panels within the art work.  I look at the art with new eyes now.  There were pi...

a few weeks ago, my husband and i went to the detroit institute of art for a date night.  i really wanted to see the latest exhibit, samurai: beyond the sword .  i love learning about the far east.  given that i have not spent much (read: any) time in the far east of china, japan or korea, i have not been too many museums specific to the topic. as usual, the DIA did a nice job with this exhibit.  the exhibit went by really quickly; i was amazed actually.   the first half of the exhibit was about the warrior part of a samurai's life.  we learned about how their swords were made.  they are a truly a work of art. it can take up to a six months to make just one sword.  i cannot imagine working on a single item for that long.  we also learned about their regalia and how it was used in official parades and other engagements. the second half was about how the samurai were actually strong carriers of the japanese culture.  it had all ...

over the thanksgiving break, i went with my husband, my parents and my sister to the new detroit institute of art exhibit, watch me move: the animation show .  we were very excited about it - we booked tickets about a week in advance for a 5:00 entrance on a friday.  it seemed like it was a good time to go; it was not as crowded as the exhibits sometimes are.  my husband loves pixar, which was featured on the billboards, so it was given that we were going to the show! i was expecting more movie stills, but it was actually a large number of movie snipets ranging from the expected (disney) to old, controversial films from spain.  the exhibit was grouped into themes by different movie categories.  to watch the movies, headphones were provided.  movies were sometimes shown on loops, but other screens had just one movie showing.  literally, if you watched every movie, you could probably spend all day in the exhibit. i thought it was a great exh...

it's been a while, but this visit to the detroit institute of arts has been in the works for a while!  i bought the tickets to the faberge: the rise and fall, the collection of the virginia museum of fine arts over a month ago!  i went to the exhibit with the man friend, jason, and my dad. i had seen the ads for this exhibit a few months ago and was excited to see what faberge was all about.  it was something that i feel like i have always known what it is (those very decorated easter eggs ), but had never seen in person.   we went at noon on a sunday arriving slightly before our entrance time.  i think we just beat the beginning of the rush!  i remembered how busy the rembrandt exhibit was last december, so i am happy we didn't wait until closer to the holiday season and we went earlier in the day this time! the museum first stepped us through the history of the house of faberge .  peter carl faberge, the founder's son, is really the owne...

last weekend, i headed down to the detroit institute of art !  the tri-county area recently passed a millage providing free admission to the county residents in exchange for a tax placed on each property.  i want to get in a habit of taking advantage of it, so i headed downtown before meeting up with some friends for brunch! i was unlucky and missed the vermeer exhibit.  i should have paid closer attention to the dates on that one!  i did end up seeing picasso and matisee: the DIA's prints and drawings .  the collection was interesting.  i liked seeing how it came together and how the purchases were made.  matisse 's crisp work in contrast with the elaborate abstraction of picasso 's was very much on display within this exhibit.  as expected, a collection of this size was donated by a single donor for each of the two artists.   matisse's bright colors with simplistic lines resonates with me.  i did enjoy seeing some of picasso's reali...

i went to the detroit institute of arts museum to see the rembrandt and the face of jesus exhibit.  it was really great. we bought tickets online the night before to reserve our viewing time.  our biggest gripe about the entire experience was the $3.50 "convenience fee" that was tacked onto each ticket purchased.  the ticket price was $16, so this "convenience fee" was almost 22% of the ticket price.  at this point, purchasing tickets online is cheaper for the museum since they do not have to employee someone to speak to me and they don't even have to print the ticket!  if they are really counting on this fee, just roll it into my admission price please; it would make me a little less grumpy while still getting the same amount of money out of me! we arrived a little early to the exhibit, which ended up being a good move since they had completely sold the exhibit out for the day.  they let people into the exhibit in batches, so it was fine that we got...

i was home for the holidays and knew i had to go see at least one museum in detroit. it was such an obvious choice, the detroit institute of arts , which had been recently renovated. my boyfriend and i headed over there on a chilly sunday afternoon. we decided to just see the museum , not the special exhibits, since we both had not been there in so long. next time we are back in the city, we will probably try the detroit science center . the parking was very convenient and just a short walk to the front of the museum. i liked the museum layout. the rooms were small and i found it easy to move from room to room. i think the best part of the museum, which i have never seen in a museum, were these descriptive signs in almost every room. the signs seemed to unite all the objects in the room (i.e. the paintings, sculptures, sketches). there were throughout the entire museum from the modern to the neoclassical to the egyptian art. a visit to the dia is not complete without mentioning...