DETROIT, MICH.- The Detroit Institute of Arts newest Guest of Honor is a 2003 painting by African-born artist Julie Mehretu entitled Looking Back to a Bright New Future, on loan from a private collection for approximately two years. Visitors can view the painting in the second floor contemporary art galleries.
This Guest of Honor is the first in a series of loans highlighting the work of artists from diverse backgrounds, part of the DIAs Reflecting Our Community initiative that aims to have the museums attendance mirror the regions racial and ethnic demographics by 2020. Future loans include works by Robert Duncanson, Archibald Motley, Henry Ossawa Tanner and contemporary artist Sanford Biggers.
Mehretu has long been interested in the legacy of modernist visionary architecture, and Looking Back to a Bright New Future evokes a sense of speed, dynamism, struggle and potential associated with the early-20th-century utopian promise of a better future. This painting highlights the idealism of new urban planning in postcolonial Africa. Drawings resemble schematic maps of planned neighborhoods, atlas markings of dots refer to economic centers and colorful irregular shapes suggest countries in Africa. The density of imagery implies the range and complexity of issues facing African nations competing for a brighter future in the global economy.
Mehretus rich personal historyshe emigrated from Ethiopia to Michigan with her parents at age sevenis reflected in her work, said Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA director. Artists from diverse backgrounds tell stories that are often not highlighted in traditional art museums, and we are committed to elevating these stories and sharing them with all of our visitors.
In 2007 the DIA hosted an exhibition of Mehretus work called City Sitings, the inaugural exhibition of the museums grand reopening following a six-year renovation and gallery reinstallation project.