A exhibit of highlights is on display now, and this fall “Reimagine African American Art” will open with existing favorites and new works

Whether you’re a regular at the Detroit Institute of Arts or it’s been years, a new exhibit is up now that showcases some of the best pieces our world-famous attraction has to offer all in one area.

“Highlights from the Modern Collection” opened earlier this month in three galleries and will continue until 2026. The exhibit features both rarely seen works of art and those stunners that you expect to marvel at when you visit the DIA, all show in a “salon style” presentation.

“There are around 65 works, paintings and sculpture and they include some of our greatest pieces in the collection, from our painting by Francis Bacon, our Monet, our Georgia O’Keeffe, a number of Pablo Picassos and of course a number of Van Goghs that we have including the ‘Self Portrait’ and the ‘Portrait of the Postman,'” DIA director Salvador Salort-Pons told The Detroit News.

“It is a great way to enjoy these pieces,” he said. “Some of them were on view, have always been on view, others are coming out from storage and we are showing them in this new installation. It’s a great opportunity to see the DIA collection in a new light.”

Rather than the way museum visitors are used to seeing paintings displayed, where one painting may be all by itself on a big wall, this exhibit will offer a salon style.

“It’s quite an interesting way the creators have installed the art,” said Salort-Pons. “A salon style is … we actually install the art all the way up the wall, so it’s kind of using the entire wall. We stack the paintings up. That’s the kind of installation that you would find in a home in the 19th century or the early 20th century, so it really gives the collection a very homey feeling.”

“This collection is so good, it looks great in whatever way you install it,” he adds.

Current renovations at the museum is what’s giving curators the opportunity for the “Highlights” exhibition.” Salort-Pons says the galleries in the second floor of the north wing are being upgraded with new floors, walls and ceilings. This work, which started in the spring, will likely finish in late 2026.

“We’re also rethinking the concept of these galleries, how people are going to navigate these galleries and experience the art,” he said.

As always, there isn’t just one thing happening at the DIA. Most Friday nights, the Rivera Court is transformed into a concert hall for Friday Night Live. This week, blues and boogie-woogie piano legend Mark Lincoln Braun — known for decades around town as Mr. B — performs at 7 p.m. The Detroit Film Theatre will show movies from influential Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa this weekend and next.

In tandem with the “Highlights from the Modern Collection” is “Guests of Honor: Armor as Fashion,” suits of armor from the late 14th until the early 17th centuries.

Next month, “Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation” will open on Sept. 28, featuring more than 60 Anishinaabe artists from across the Great Lakes region. This collection will be the first major Native American exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 30 years. That same weekend marks the return of “Ofrendas: Celebrating el Día de Muertos,” on Sept. 27.

Also this fall, “Reimagine African American Art” opens on Oct. 18. This will take the museum’s collection of existing favorites and showcase it with new works in one of the most prominent spaces, next to Rivera Court.

“This is a great moment for the DIA,” Salort-Pons said of this reinstallation. “We are one of the first museums in America to collect African American art and we have one of the best collections in the country.”

mbaetens@detroitnews.com

Detroit Institute of Arts”Highlights from the Modern Collection”

Ongoing

“Guests of Honor: Armor as Fashion”

Now through April 26

13th annual “Ofrendas: Celebrating el Día de Muertos”

Sept. 27-Nov. 2

“Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation”

Sept. 28-April 5

“Reimagine African American Art”

Opening Oct. 18

Museum is open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tues.-Thurs., 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Fri. and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun. 

5200 Woodward, Detroit

(313) 833-7900, dia.org

Free admission for residents of the tri-county area