True to Form: Selections from the Permanent Collection

Drawn from its holdings of more than 6,000 objects of art, design, and craft, Cranbrook Art Museum presents True to Form: Selections from the Permanent Collection. The exhibition includes celebrated favorites alongside newly-acquired works debuting for the first time.

True to Form explores three artistic actions—Capture, Distill, and Disrupt—to make exciting new connections between artworks that span different time periods, materials, genres, and movements. Andy Warhol’s Polaroids of art world glitterati are placed alongside Duane Hanson’s life-like Bodybuilder sculpture; a Harry Bertoia architectural wall relief is complemented by Susan Goethel Campbell’s stark black & white city nightscape, and many more. The exhibition will be on long-term view.

Capture focuses on how artists represent moments from life in both time-based and traditional art materials. For example, Andy Warhol’s Polaroids of art world glitterati are placed alongside Duane Hanson’s joltingly life-like Bodybuider sculpture, thereby unveiling a paradox on realism and authenticity.  Distill explores how simplified forms beget complex readings. For instance, a Harry Bertoia architectural wall relief that accentuates space, light, and shadow is complemented by Susan Goethel Campbell’s stark black & white nightscape of a city that uses these same qualities to depict atmospheric phenomena. The artists in Disrupt augment, replicate, and overlay form and image, as seen in Robert Rauschenberg’s Moon Burn and Romare Bearden’s Tidings—two artworks that utilize photo-collage techniques to convey the multi-layered experience of social and cultural life.

True to Form: Selections from the Permanent Collection is made possible with generous support from the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation. The exhibition is organized by Cranbrook Art Museum and curated by Laura Mott, Curator of Contemporary Art and Design with assistance by the CAM Education Department.