Afternoon in Detroit

My husband and I traveled north to Detroit over the weekend. We went to the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum.

At the DIA, we saw the exhibitions, Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus and Detroit Revealed: Photographs 2000-2010 .

Following the DIA, we were supposed to travel about three miles down the road to the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Hall. We ended up skipping it because of the snow storm. When your 70 miles away from home and the forecast calls for 2-5 inches of snow, you want to be back home. Not driving on the interstate.

Seeing Rembrandt van Rijn's works of art up close was wonderful. Anytime I can see famous works of art in person that I saw in a book is wonderful. His 64 works were in three galleries. My husband and I went to the DIA on a Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. We didn't expect to see the museum was packed with people. Most of the people were there to see the Rembrandt exhibition.

Alongside of the beautiful paintings were sketches from Rembrandt and his students. As an art major, I loved seeing the sketches. I liked how you could see the work that went into creating the masterful paintings. I learned that Rembrandt was the first Western artist to show Jesus as a Jewish person. He used a Jewish model for his face of Jesus.

After seeing Rembrandt, we went to see the Detroit Revealed: Photographs 2000-2010. This exhibition brought together photographs and video taken in Detroit. My favorite photos were of the urban decay of a plant and workers on the line of the auto factory. Not surprising, I love urban decay and documentary photography. One of the walls had a huge photograph of an area of decay in the River Rouge Plant. I wanted to take it home with me. It was so beautiful.

I was pleased that my husband and I were able to get up to Detroit to see both of the exhibitions. If you are in the Detroit area, the Rembrandt exhibition ends on February 12 and the Detroit Revealed ends April 29.

Painting: The Supper at Emmaus/Rembrandt van Rijn
Print: Christ Healing the Sick/Rembrandt vin Rijn