Diego Rivera’s Industrial Symphony

Diego Rivera Mural by Ashleigh Mowers

“As I rode back to Detroit, a vision of Henry Ford’s industrial empire kept passing before my eyes. In my ears, I heard the wonderful symphony which came from his factories where metals were shaped into tools for men’s service. It was a new music, waiting for the composer with genius enough to give it communicable form.

I thought of the millions of different men by whose combined labor and thought automobiles were produced, from the miners who dug the iron ore out of the earth to the railroad men and teamsters who brought the finished machines to the consumer, so that man, space, and time might be conquered, and ever-expanding victories be won against death.”
― Diego Rivera, My Art, My Life

There’s probably not a better monument to the massive role of labor in building Michigan & the United States than the Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals. Commissioned for the Detroit Institute of Art, these 27 massive paintings that cover the four walls of the Rivera Court at the DIA:

In 1932, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) began illustrating the walls of what was then the DIA’s Garden Court. Using the fresco technique common in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Americas, Rivera created a grand and complex cycle of murals that portray the geological, technological, and human history of Detroit. He also developed an ancient context for modern industry rooted in the belief system of the Aztec people of central Mexico.

Ashley took this photo back in January of 2017. You can see more in her Detroit gallery & on her website!

Remembering MSU philanthropist Eli Broad

Another Night at the Museum by fotoman91

Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business dean Sanjay Gupta shares a tribute to billionaire alumnus Eli Broad who died last week at the age of 87, saying in part:

As a loyal Spartan, Mr. Broad has left an extraordinary and unparalleled legacy on the banks of the Red Cedar. In total, Eli and Edythe have given nearly $100 million to support MSU in a multitude of ways. From building the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum to supporting the College of Education, their impact has been significant across campus.

Nowhere has their giving been more evident than here in the Broad College of Business. Passionate about the MBA program, in 1991, Mr. Broad made what was at the time the largest gift ever made to a public business school. His $20 million commitment to the Eli Broad College of Business and the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management — both renamed in his honor — was designed to help the university’s new full-time MBA program emerge as one of the nation’s top graduate management programs. Today, that program is a top 25 U.S. public program that has launched the careers of countless Spartans.

The Broad Museum is a contemporary art museum and is open free of charge Friday – Sunday from noon to 6 PM.

fotoman91 took this pic last summer. See more in his awesome Night Time gallery on Flickr.

Love gives back

Love by Ansonredford

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu

Here’s an awesome piece of graffiti that Donald captured last summer in Detroit. Check out his Graffiti gallery on Flickr for more!

Dancing in the Snow

Dancing in Snow by Bruce Bertz

Roadside America explains about the Gene Kelly Mural in Ann Arbor:

Artist David Zinn created a mural of the iconic scene in which Gene Kelly sings, dances, and swings from a lamppost in the rain. He created a fun illusion incorporating a real lamppost on the sidewalk. Gene Kelly’s daughter, Kerry Kelly Noviak, is a longtime residence of Ann Arbor.

Bruce caught a perfect shot of the legendary dancer engaging in a more Michigan appropriate dance yesterday. See more in his Ann Arbor 2020 album on Flickr.

Detroit will never forget

Belle Isle Coronavirus Memorial by Eric Milliken

“I want everyone to look at this to understand what happened to the city of Detroit.”
~Eric Millikin

This image represents the 1,500 Detroiters lost to COVID-19. Families of 900 of the victims of Covid-19 provided the City of Detroit with the photos to create this powerful image. Residents can drive thru Belle Isle and pay their condolences and view all photos as well as the collage made by artist Eric Millikin on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 1st and 2nd.

The Detroit Free Press interviewed montage creator Eric Millikin:

For artist Eric Millikin, this is the ugly truth behind COVID-19 — a truth he sought to reveal in a powerful image commissioned by the city of Detroit, a mural featuring the faces of 900 Detroiters who lost their lives to the novel coronavirus.

Husbands. Wives. Children. Grandparents. More than 1,500 died between March and August, mostly from Detroit.

Millikin created a montage that forms the iconic “Spirit of Detroit,” using the faces of the people Detroiters long to remember.

…”I want people to see the enormity of that and understand it. It’s absolutely immeasurable. These people — they touched so many other people, and they will never get the chance to touch them again,” Millikin said, his voice trailing off as he choked up. “When they see the enormity of it, they can understand — it didn’t have to be this bad.”

You can click to view the photo bigger on the City of Detroit Facebook. Learn more about Eric on his website & @EricMillikin on Instagram.

Windows in Grand Haven

Grand Haven In the Spring by Daniel L

Daniel caught these beautiful colors in Grand Haven this Spring. See more in his Art album on Flickr & have a wonderful week!

On the 8s

figure eights, photo by Terry Johnston

In the event that there aren’t enough 8s for you on this August 8th, here’s a whole bunch more from the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids.

View the photo bigger and see more in Terry’s UICA slideshow.

Project Tim

This space originally contained a photo by Detroit area artist Tim and the last name of “Man, do I not want to promote or support the art of Michigan’s truly insufferable artists.”

He’d rather you don’t see it here and believe me, I am more than happy to oblige.

In What is Project Tim?, Crain’s Detroit Business explains that a mystery company has amassed 850 acres in land options to build a $5 billion industrial facility that could be the largest manufacturing plant in the country:

The massive project is dubbed “Project Tim” in a document the company provided to local government and economic officials, who have vowed to keep the company’s name and industry a closely-held secret while the land is being assembled.

The document says the industrial development is being pursued by a “small group of globally leading companies and experts” who want to build a 24 million-square-foot facility that would be “the greenest facility of its kind anywhere in the world.”

“As of this time we cannot share details on the precise nature of Project Tim,” according to the document, which the city of Durand has been distributing to residents. “… It will be a high-tech industrial development unlike anything that you have probably ever seen before.”

The company’s document describes a massive manufacturing facility unlike anything in Michigan — in terms of size — that promises to create 800 full-time jobs in “Phase 1.”

The document describes a sprawling facility 6,200 feet long and 3,900 feet wide that would top 550 acres in size. (A square mile is 640 acres.) If built, the plant being proposed in Durand would be 50 percent larger than the 16 million-square-foot Ford River Rouge Complex. It also would be bigger than the tiny 499-acre nation of Monaco along France’s Mediterranean coast.

You can see the photo background bigilicious and see more in Scott’s Detroit Industrial Gallery slideshow.

#TBT Jungle Love in Prehistoric Michigan

Jungle Love, photo by Matt Stangis

The Rapidian has a feature on prehistoric Michigan’s tropical seas, jungles and inhabitants that’s a great read and the ultimate Throwback Thursday! Here’s a small slice:

After about 60 million years, warm, shallow seas came down again from the Arctic and covered Michigan during the Silurian period. At this time the land would have been in a subtropical climate that gave rise to large coral reefs across the state. Fossil findings show that the largest and oldest reef extends through the center of the Upper Peninsula. A species of coral that lived during this time period would eventually become fossilized and become what we refer to as Petoskey Stones.

The seas retreated over time, leaving a desert scattered with fossilized remains that eventually formed the limestone that is located over one hundred and twenty feet below us today. The sections of this exposed limestone is what created the Grand Rapid’s famous rapids. Much of the salt deposits that were left from retreating seas of this period are still mined in Detroit.

The Devonian period around 400 million years ago saw the rise of vertebrates in Michigan. North America was covered with up to 40 percent of water. There were a great number of fish swarming the salt and fresh water seas. The Ganoid species were in a crude state of evolution. Many of them had armor plating with two of their relatives, the Gar Pike and the Sturgeon, still existing in Great Lakes today. Primitive plants, such as the seed fern, developed from marine algae. On land the Tiktaalik, the link between finned fish and early amphibians, started to use its muscular fins to drag itself around land.

…At the end of the Carboniferous Period, known as the Pennsylvanian subperiod, Michigan was a semi-tropical jungle featuring primitive vegetation. Ferns without bark, some of which bloomed scentless unattractive flowers, grew to almost 100 feet. Millions of generations of trees grew and died in the jungle. The trees that fell in the swampy parts of the jungle were covered up by water and soil that became rock over time. The forces of time and pressure on these trees would eventually see this prehistoric jungle become the coal basin that sits underneath a large area of the U.S. including the upper northeast part of Kent county.

In the sky above one foot long dragon flies swarmed in droves on the ground and cockroaches the size of a man’s palm crawled around. Reptiles started to appear, evolving from amphibians, not dependent on water to lay their amniotic eggs. Towards the end of this period the rain forests gave way to deserts which decreased the amphibian populations and caused an evolutionary shift in reptiles.

Definitely click through for more – there are some cool links as well!

I’m pretty sure Matt took this photo at ArtPrize in 2013. View it background bigilicious and see more in his slideshow.

Muse Monday: The Muses of Michigan’s Capitol Dome

Offset, photo by DetroitDerek Photography

A highlight of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing are the eight muses that ring the Capitol dome. During the latest restoration, it was learned that they were painted in the late 19^th century by Italian artist Tommaso Juglaris. Michigan’s Otherside relates the story of the Mysterious Painter of the Michigan State Capital Muses:

The paintings are absolutely gorgeous, and for years, historians believed they might have been the work of Lewis Ives, an artist who has other pieces in the Capitol. Then, in 1992, a visitor named Geoffrey Drutchas entered the building, looking for works by a nineteenth-century Italian artist. Drutchas’ inquiry led to an investigation that ultimately revealed the paintings’ true creator. But more on that later; first, a quick background on how the muses became a part of the Capitol in the first place.

The current state Capitol opened in 1879. For the first few years of its existence, the Capitol’s walls were bare, as the state couldn’t spare any money for artwork. Eventually, the state had extra cash, so the legislature commissioned William Wright, owner of a Detroit decorating company, to handle interior design duties. The Capitol’s architect, Elijah Myers, said that he wanted allegorical paintings (in other words, paintings whose subjects look like one thing, but represent something else) to appear above the Capitol rotunda. That’s how the Capitol ended up with its muses. At first glance, the women in the paintings that Wright delivered to the Capitol are simply figures from Greek mythology; however, if a viewer looks at the paintings closely, he or she finds that each muse holds or is surrounded by items that represent a specific aspect of Michigan’s economy and culture.

Read on for more, and also see State Capital historian Kerry Chartkoff’s lecture on Michigan’s Capitol: Muses, Memoirs at Michigan State University.

View Derek’s photo bigger and see more in his Cities other than Detroit slideshow.