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Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts,
DIA, was called the Detroit Museum of Art at first, and today has
the one of the biggest and most prominent art collections in the
country. In 2003, it was the second biggest municipally-owned museum
in the country with a collection worth more than a billion dollars.
Over 100 galleries covering over 677,000 square feet that was added
to in 2007 and added another 77,000 square feet, contains a
magnificent collection. The building is considered a masterpiece
itself and the original structure was designed by Paul Cret and is
now flanked on both the east and west with wings covered by marble
exterior and listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The
first painting was donated in 1883 and now sits in a collection of
65,000 and the museum has become an encyclopedic museum, not any
specific kind, but rather a collection that spans the world, from
ancient Egypt to contemporary works. It is in the Cultural Center of
the city, just two miles north of downtown, by Wayne State
University. Over the decades, it has become one of the most
impressive museums in the nation, ranking by paintings as the third
biggest in the country. Almost immediately after starting, its
collection began to grow, with strong influences by Americans in the
areas of decorative arts, paintings, furniture, and sculpture from
the 18th to the 20th centuries that include such notable artists as
Andrew Wyeth, John James Audubon, James McNeill Whistler, George
Bellows, William T. Williams, George Caleb Bingham, Andy Warhol,
Alexander Calder, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Mary Cassatt, Henry Ossawa
Tanner, Dale Chihuly, Gilbert Stuart, Frederic Edwin Church, Tony
Smith, Thomas Cole, John French Sloan, John Singleton Copley, John
Singer Sargent, Leon Dabo, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Thomas Wilmer
Dewing, Paul Revere, Thomas Eakins, Frederic Remington, Childe
Hassam, Sharon Que, Robert Henri, Hiram Powers, Winslow Homer,
Duncan Phyfe, George Inness, Tom Phardel, Georgia O'Keefe, Rembrandt
Peale and Wilson Peale. During the early 20th century, the museum
was collecting a great number of pieces, like the dragon tile relief
off the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, Pieter Bruegel the elder's The
Wedding Dance, an Egyptian relief of Mourning Women and statuette of
a Seated Scribe, St. Jerome in his Study by Jan van Eyck and
Giovanni Bellini's Madonna and Child. Paintings that were bought
included the French artists Eugene Boudin, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas
and Odilon Redon; as well as other old masters like Peter Paul
Rubens, Gerard ter Borch, Albrecht Durer and Rembrandt Harmenszoon
van Rijin. In 1922, a Vincent van Gogh self portrait was procured,
as well as the Window by Henri Matisse. The museum was acquiring
some of the most beautiful paintings in the world and bringing them
here to the United States to showcase the marvelous works of these
great artists and more. Plan to spend some time here.
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