These works are out of this world. Created by five Spanish masters – each, one of the greatest painters in the history of the world — they capture a universe of meaning and feeling that has to be seen to be appreciated.
Thanks to the Detroit Institute of Arts, we don’t have to travel from Michigan’s penninsulas to the Iberian penninsula to experience them in person. All we have to do is visit the DIA from June 21 through Aug. 19, 2012.
You’ll experience works by Francisco de Goya, El Greco, Salvador Dalí, Diego Velázquez, and Pablo Picasso, who created the image at left, Melancholy Woman, one of the world’s great masterpieces preserved and treasured by the DIA.
From the Detroit Institute of Arts:
When the DIA’s Melancholy Woman by Pablo Picasso returns this summer after having been on loan to several prestigious museums over the past two years, it will bring with it other masterworks by Spain’s most important artists. The DIA celebrates the painting’s return with Five Spanish Masterpieces, which comprises: Portrait of the Matador Pedro Romero, Francisco de Goya, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; The Holy Family with St. Anne and the Infant St. John the Baptist, El Greco, Museo del Prado, Madrid; Soft Construction with Boiled Beans, Salvador Dalí, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Portrait of a Man, Diego Velázquez, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Melancholy Woman, Pablo Picasso, Detroit Institute of Arts.
The DIA is a generous lender, and grants dozens of loan requests every year from museums including the Louvre, the Prado, the National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among many others. Melancholy Woman, a great example of Picasso’s celebrated Blue Period, has been featured in exhibitions in Zurich, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Paris and New York.
Five Spanish Masterpieces underscores the international importance of the DIA collection, and the substantial role that the DIA plays in spreading art, knowledge and culture in the United States and internationally. Lenders to the exhibition recognize the DIA as a significant museum that has shaped the history of American collecting.
During peak times, there may be a wait to enter this free exhibition.
The DIA is open Tuesday through Sunday. For admission prices, hours and other details, visit DIA.org.