{"id":253916,"date":"2025-10-27T04:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T04:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/253916\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T04:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T04:33:14","slug":"new-exhibits-highlight-african-american-native-american-art-at-detroits-world-class-art-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/253916\/","title":{"rendered":"New exhibits highlight African American, Native American art at Detroit\u2019s world-class art museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2013 One of the oldest and most complete collections of African American art in the nation just got a major upgrade – and you can see it now at Detroit\u2019s world-class art museum.<\/p>\n

The Center for African American Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts was the first department of its kind in the nation when it was founded in 2000. Seven years later, the museum opened its first gallery dedicated specifically to African American Art, then located on the upper floor of the DIA in Midtown Detroit.<\/p>\n

Now, 25 years after the historic founding of the department, the Detroit Institute of Arts has debuted an expanded, four-room gallery at the heart of the building. The reimagined Gallery of African American Art takes center stage, located directly next to the iconic Rivera Court, which features floor-to-ceiling frescoes of Detroit industry painted by muralist Diego Rivera.<\/p>\n

\"MichiganThe new African American Art gallery at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com<\/p>\n

DIA director Salvador Salort-Pons said the new gallery is the culmination of more than 80 years of work in collecting African American artwork. In that time, the DIA has led the way in curating and displaying work by African American artists, including becoming the first major American encyclopedic fine art museum to establish a department specifically for curating African American art.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started to collect African American art in the 1940s, and over time we\u2019ve been more strategic and purposeful about this to the point that we have, now, one of the best, largest collections of African American art in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just wanted to take this to the next level. Since we have this great history, we wanted to bring African American art at the center of the museum experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit includes artwork created between 1840 and 1986. It opens with a room full of Civil War-era pieces, many commissioned by abolitionists, that became some of the earliest publicized works by African American artists to achieve national acclaim. <\/p>\n

The next room highlights the role of African American artists in movements like Social Realism and the Harlem Renaissance, as well as art created for the federally-funded Works Progress Administration.<\/p>\n

Hughie Lee-Smith\u2019s 1953 painting \u201cThe Piper\u201d is placed prominently as an example of work created during the Great Migration, during which six million African Americans moved from the South to cities in the Northeast, Midwest and West. The painting, which depicts a lone child playing a recorder on a Detroit street, is said to symbolize the hope and alienation migrants felt after moving away from the South.<\/p>\n

\"Michiganat the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com<\/p>\n

As visitors move through the space, they\u2019re confronted with the activist artwork of the Civil Rights Era and its immediate aftermath, which occupies three sides of a room opposite a wall of Haitian artwork that addresses colonialism.<\/p>\n

At the center of a gallery wall featuring work made during the 1960s and 1970s is a painting by Allie McGhee, titled \u201cBlack Attack\u201d, which depicts an African American man defending himself from the violence around him. The painting was created in response to the Detroit Rebellion, also known as the Detroit Uprising or 1967 Detroit riot, when racial tensions in the city reached their peak. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s placed next to \u201cRevolutionary (Angela Davis)\u201d by Chicago-based artist Wadsworth A. Jarrell, an internationally-famous depiction of the Civil Rights Era icon formed from colorful letters that spell works like \u201cResist\u201d and \u201cRevolution\u201d as well as a quote from Davis herself: \u201c\u201dI have given my life in the struggle. If I have to lose my life, that is the way it will be.\u201d The mixed-media piece is a defining artwork of the Black Arts Movement.<\/p>\n

The final room features abstract artwork created as recently as 1986, when African American artists helped lay the groundwork for contemporary abstract painting and sculpture. It includes work by abstract artists like Robert Reed, whose painting \u201cPlum Nellie\u201d on a pair of triangular canvases hangs next to Edward Clark\u2019s \u201cMaple Red.\u201d Clark became famous late in his career for pioneering the use of a push broom to spread thick acrylic paint over canvas.<\/p>\n

\"MichiganAbstract artwork in the final room of the new African American Art exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com<\/p>\n

Richard Hunt\u2019s metal sculpture \u201cField Section,\u201d which combines welded steel forms with automotive parts, takes center stage in the room. In 1970, Hunt became the first African American sculptor to have a solo show at New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the visitor comes, they\u2019ll get the whole picture – the vision, the sequence of what has happened,\u201d Salort-Pons said. \u201cWhen you walk in these galleries, and you get to the end and you look back, you can see the development of the themes of the forms and the colors that these creatives have done over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new exhibit, entitled Reimagine African American Art, is the first step in a renovation of the museum\u2019s North Wing. The Modern and Contemporary galleries are currently undergoing a full renovation and are expected to reopen in Fall 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re upgrading our galleries, putting in new floors and a new ceiling, we\u2019re really changing the navigation and we\u2019re preparing an installation of our Modern and Contemporary art that is going to impress,\u201d he said. Works by contemporary African American artists will be incorporated into the upcoming space. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou will see Mickalene Thomas with Andy Warhol and [Anselm] Kiefer and others,\u201d Salort-Pons said.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, visitors can see artwork from the Modern and Contemporary galleries – including famous works like Van Gogh\u2019s self-portrait as well as works by Picasso, C\u00e9zanne and Monet – in a condensed salon-style special exhibition near Rivera Court.<\/p>\n

\"MichiganTotems by George Morrison, left, and Jim Denomie outside the entrance to the Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation special exhbit at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com<\/p>\n

Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation<\/p>\n

On the other side of the museum\u2019s second floor is a new special exhibit highlighting contemporary artwork by Native American artists from the Anishinaabe group of peoples, which includes Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Odawa artists. Those ethnic groups are also known as Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawatomi.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cContemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation,\u201d the sprawling exhibit features a variety of media, from hand-crafted canoes and woven birchbark vessels to photographs of punk icon Iggy Pop and even a seven-minute short film by Anishinaabe filmmaker Ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby. <\/p>\n

Denene De Quintal, Associate Curator of Native American Art at the DIA, said the goal of the special exhibit, which has been years in the making, is to challenge the viewer\u2019s idea of what Native American art can be. It\u2019s designed to buck stereotypes of artwork created by Native Americans by presenting a varied collection of contemporary work alongside artist statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basically pushing back against the stereotypes that people have,\u201d De Quintal said. \u201cThe preconceived notions of what they think Native American art is and can be and what it should look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichiganA birchbark canoe by Ronald J. Paquin in the Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation special exhbit at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com<\/p>\n

De Quintal worked with an advisory board of Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Odawa artists to curate the exhibit. Anishinaabe artist Eva Oldman served as the graphic designer for the space, incorporating Anishinaabe material themes by depicting stars, sky, water and birch bark.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur artist advisors and the DIA team wanted to show the depth and the breadth of Native American art, especially contemporary Anishinaabe art,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why you see so many different media – painting, birch bark, quill work, et cetera. But it\u2019s also all contemporary art.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the help of translator Helen Peltier Fuhst, each plaque and artist statement in the exhibit was translated from English into Anishinaabemowin, an original Native American language of the Great Lakes region. Interactive QR codes throughout the exhibit encourage visitors to learn relevant words in the language.<\/p>\n

In keeping with the theme of continuation, the exhibition features a number of works by mentor artist and their prot\u00e9g\u00e9s, including works by parents alongside those of their children. Guests are greeted by a pair of larger-than-life columns immediately recognizable as totems – the word has roots in the Ojibwe language – a painted totem created by artist George Morrison, and a stained redwood column designed by Jim Denomie. <\/p>\n

In his artist\u2019s statement, Denomie calls Morrison an \u201cart-historical ancestor and mentor.\u201d Denomie\u2019s student, Jonathan Thunder, provided a tableau called \u201cBasil\u2019s Dream\u201d for the show, and Thunder\u2019s own student, Michelle Defoe, has a painting of a Thunderbird – a mythological bird-like spirit.<\/p>\n

\"Michigan\u201cThe Waters of Tomorrow by Moira Villiard\u201d in the Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation special exhbit at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025.at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com<\/p>\n

At different points throughout the special exhibit, guests can interact with life-sized video installations featuring artists describing their Anishinaabe heritage, their artwork and the messages they hope to convey. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted the artists to be able to express their point of view \u2013 why they make their work, how they themselves feel about stereotypes when it comes to Native American art.\u201d De Quintal said. \u201cIt\u2019s life size, so it seems like you\u2019re actually having a conversation with the artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two exhibits are linked by four marble busts – a pair in each – that were created by Mary Edmonia Lewis, a sculptor of mixed African-American and Anishinaabe descent. <\/p>\n

The busts in the first room of the African American art exhibit depict Native American characters Hiawatha and Minnehaha from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow\u2019s 1855 epic \u201cThe Song of Hiawatha.\u201d The accompanying plaque describes how Edmonia Lewis\u2019 sale of her artwork to abolitionists allowed her to move to Rome, Italy in 1865.<\/p>\n

Edmonia Lewis\u2019 central pieces in the Anishinaabe exhibit depicts Longfellow himself alongside Minnehaha. Hers is the only non-contemporary work in the exhibit.<\/p>\n

\"MichiganMarble busts by Mary Edmonia Lewis depicting Hiawatha and Minnehaha in the new African American Art gallery at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 23 2025.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com<\/p>\n

The Anishinaabe special exhibit opened on September 28 and will run through April 5, 2026. The new African American art exhibit, which opened October 18, will be a permanent part of the museum. <\/p>\n

Admission to the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, is free for residents of Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties. General admission costs $20 for adults and $10 for seniors and college students for those living outside the tri-county area. <\/p>\n

During the run of \u201cContemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation,\u201d admission is free for visitors who show tribal-issued identification. <\/p>\n

Both the African American Art and Anishinaabe exhibits are included with general admission to the museum.<\/p>\n

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