DIA's 'Detroit Collects' shows why the Motor City is a treasure trove of Black art

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Nov 12, 2019 at 5:13 pm
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click to enlarge “After Manet, from May Days Long Forgotten,” 2002, Carrie Mae Weems, American; digital chromogenic print. Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections runs through March 1 at the DIA. - Shirley Woodson and Edsel Reid Collection; Courtesy of the DIA
Shirley Woodson and Edsel Reid Collection; Courtesy of the DIA
“After Manet, from May Days Long Forgotten,” 2002, Carrie Mae Weems, American; digital chromogenic print. Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections runs through March 1 at the DIA.

Opened to the public on Tuesday, Detroit Collects exhibits 60 works of all mediums from 19 Detroit-area art collectors, some of which are now available to the public for the first time ever. All are focused on Black artists, including works by Carrie Mae Weems, Romare Bearden, Nick Cave, Alison Saar, and Rashid Johnson, as well as artists with Detroit connections, like Charles McGee, Mario Moore, Tylonn Sawyer, Allie McGhee, and others. The DIA’s General Motors Center for African American Art bills itself as the first curatorial department dedicated to Black art in the U.S.

See DIA website for schedule; 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-7900; dia.org. Free with general admission, which is free for residents of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties. Show runs through March 1.

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