Treasures of the DIA: The Detroit Institute of Arts

With more than four hundred illustrations, Treasures of the DIA presents masterworks from the museums encyclopedic collections: from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome to the present day and spanning the globe. This book is arranged geographically, with works of art originating in the same parts of the world grouped together (the arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe), or by time (modern and contemporary), or medium (the graphic arts). Among the more notable works are Vincent van Goghs Self-Portrait, the first painting by that artist to enter a public collection in the United States, and James McNeill Whistlers Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, centerpiece of the artists famous 1878 libel case against John Ruskin. The museums best known works are featuredBruegels The Wedding Dance, a Kongo Nail Figure, Diego Riveras monumental Detroit Industry murals, to name but threebut lesser-known masterpieces are also illustrated: a rare ewer produced by the Medici Grand Ducal workshops, one of only fifty-nine surviving works of Medici porcelain known to exist; a magnificent palace door by the Yoruban artist Olówè of Isè; Robert Franks Drugstore Detroit, from the photographers Detroit and Commuter series in the mid 1950s, and much more.