A Day for Detroit

Marcel Duchamp, Photorelief, 1935 (printed 1953)

Those who view art in the Detroit Institute of Art's collection with dollar signs in their eyes -- and the city's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, who announced Monday he's hired Christie's to appraise some of DIA's art for potential sale, may be among them -- seem to miss a key point: that the arts can, and likely will, play a key role in the economic revival of post-bankruptcy Detroit. Selling off masterworks by Van Gogh, Rivera, and van Eyck would effectively scatter a collection built with intention, reducing access for Detroit residents.

To highlight the DIA's amazing, diverse collection and showcase artworks that may be threatened should such a sale take place, I'm joining with Modern Art Notes and more than a dozen other art sites to observe A Day for Detroit, in which we'll all be sharing our favorite works from the Institute's collection. Here's a list of all the sites that will be participating today.

Claes Oldenburg, Inverted Q, 1976

Morris Louis, Number 205, 1961

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936

Charles Eames, Side Chair, 1951

Yayoi Kusama, Silver Shoes (23 objects), 1976/1977

Albrecht Durer, The Four Horsemen, 1497/1498

Update: Some of my colleagues at the Walker Art Center share their favorites from the DIA collection for A Day for Detroit.