Museum staff at the DIA is finishing installation this afternoon and Detroit Experiences: Robert Frank Photographs, 1955 will open tomorrow. Here’s a few photographs from behind the scenes.
DIA Lighting technician Grant West getting a perfect five foot candles of light on each photograph
Collections Care Specialist Doug Bulka at the reading table.
A peak midway through the gallery
Detroit River Rouge Plant, 1955, © Robert Frank
Detroit Experiences: Robert Frank Photographs, 1955 opens at the DIA this Wednesday, March 3. I thought readers might want a quick look at a few of the photographs in the exhibition (there are over 60 works – all from the DIA’s permanent collecction) which will be on view in the special exhibition galleries just off Rivera court where the Detroit Industry murals by Mexican artist Diego Rivera have been on view since 1932.
View of the DIA's Rivera court and Diego Rivera's Industry murals from 1932
Both men found inspiration for their work at the Ford Motor Company River Rouge plant (known as “the Rouge” to locals) in Dearborn, Michigan.
Frank spent several days photographing at the Rouge in 1955. About a third of the exhibition includes Frank’s rare imagery from inside the huge complex. He also visited Belle Isle, the Gratiot Drive-In (found in Roseville, Michigan, and now demolished), as well as other familiar haunts around the city. Frank came to Detroit to photograph “how Americans live and work” – several of the Detroit images were reproduced in his book The Americans and appeared in later publications he created. The photographs were part of a larger group of nearly 27,000 images he took traveling across the U.S on a Guggenheim fellowship.
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Tagged Belle Isle, black and white photographs, Detroit, DIA, Diego Rivera, Exhibitions, Ford Motor Company River Rouge factory, Gratiot Drive-In, Guggenheim fellowship, Guggenheim grant, Industry Murals, Michigan, Photographs, Rivera frescos, Robert Frank, Roseville, The Americans
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