One week left to see Church exhibit at the DIA

Looking for an outing that doesn’t require being outside?

This is the last week to see the Detroit Institute of Arts’ special exhibition “Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage.” The exhibition on display until Jan. 15 focuses on American artist Frederic Church’s paintings done in the Middle East, Athens and Rome.

“I’m so glad we decided to go. His work is outstanding,” said a painter from St. Clair Shores, who went to the museum to see Monet and discovered Church.

Church was the most popular and financially successful painter in mid-19th-century America, best known for his large paintings of wild places in North and South America, the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. But from the late 1860s until the late 1870s, many of his most important paintings represented ancient cities or buildings that he had seen on his 1867 to 1869 trip to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. His work was done during a vacation with his family - who are also depicted in his work.

At home the subject of Church’s paintings were nature but in this exhibit features Middle Eastern, Greek and Roman themes illustrating iconic landmarks that help to tell the story of human history. The exhibition also shows the working side of Church including numerous pencil drawings and oil studies that Church completed during his trip and brought back to his studio.

A catalog accompanies the exhibition. Support for the catalogue has been provided by the Ida and Conrad Smith Fund.

”Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage” will travel to two additional venues: Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, NC, Feb. 8- May 13; and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT, June 2-Aug. 26.

If you go

Tickets for the exhibit are $16 for adults and $7 for ages 6-17. For Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county residents, $10 for adults, $5 for ages 6-17. Free for DIA members. Tickets include admission to the exhibition “Monet: Framing Life.” The Monet exhibition will be closed Jan. 16-18; it will reopen Jan. 19 and be on view through March 4.

Regular museum hours are 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m.–10 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. General admission (excludes ticketed exhibitions) is free for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county residents and DIA members. For all others, $14 for adults, $9 for seniors ages 62-plus, $8 for college students, $6 for ages 6–17. For membership information, call 313-833-7971.

The Detroit Institute of Art is at 5200 Woodward Avenue, Detroit.

-- Gina Joseph, The Macomb Daily Staff