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Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art (FMCA) support and enhance the DIA’s James Pearson Duffy Department of Contemporary Art through the purchase, donation, and loan of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts and more. Working closely with the DIA’s curatorial staff, the FMCA Board creates fund-raising initiatives, while promoting greater knowledge of Contemporary art and ideas in the Detroit region. Activities include a series of lectures that bring today’s best artists, critics, historians and collectors to the DIA; and Artalks, offering FMCA members access to the homes of the most prominent art collectors in the region. FMCA funds also contribute to the DIA’s special exhibitions of contemporary art.
FMCA began in 1931-only 2 years after the Black Friday Stock Market crash-by 17 visionaries dubbed “art sophisticates” in a Detroit News article, and is now the museum’s oldest and largest auxiliary. The goal of the group was to promote “a better understanding and appreciation” of contemporary art and to donate a work of art annually with funds from membership dues and special events. The first such purchase was Marc Chagall’s Snow Covered Church, which cost eight hundred dollars at the time.
This initial purchase established a standard that has been matched with the purchase of such DIA collection favorites as Andy Warhol’s Double Self Portrait, Tony Smith’s Gracehoper, Max Ernst’s Moonmad, Claes Oldenburg’s Giant Three-Way Plug, and Yayoi Kusama’s Silver Shoes. Since 1931 over 300 works of art, including sculpture, glass, ceramics, paintings, furniture, and textiles have been added to one of the premiere collections in the country with the help of FMCA.
In addition, the FMCA continues to assist the museum in acquiring works in new mediums such as the recent purchase of Joseph Wesner’s video installation Voyageurs, Shahzia Sikander’s digital painting Dissonance to Detour, Ghada Amer’s Black Absence and Yinka Shonibare’s Sarah Hewitt. The newly-reopened contemporary galleries welcomed over 60,000 people on opening weekend in November 2007, and feature such major contemporary pieces in the DIA collection such as Willem de Kooning’s 1959 Merritt Parkway, Alberto Giacometti’s 1960 monumental Grande femme debout II (Standing Woman II), Louise Bourgeouis’ 1949 The Blind Leading the Blind, Eva Hesse’s 1967 Accession II, Robert Morris’ 1970 Untitled industrial felt sculpture, Mark di Suvero’s elegant 1959 Tom, and Robert Irwin’s Untitled light sculpture from 1968-9.
Click here to download the Spring FMCA newsletter [PDF format]
Click here to download Artalks Fall ’07 [PDF format]
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