Cranbrook Art Museum Announces First Museum Exhibition Dedicated to Cuban Mid-Century Design


A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century DesignCranbrook Art Museum in the NewsCuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed)Marco Castillo: The Hands of the CollectorNewsPress Releases

Images clockwise from top left: 1) Helena Serrano, Day of the Heroic Guerrilla (October 8), 1968, poster for the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL). 2) Gonzalo Córdoba, Habana Lounge Chair, 1964, for Dujo Muebles, mahogany and leather. Photo: David Avilés. 3) Marco Castillo, Beltrán, 2019, mahogany and cane. Courtesy the artist and Nara Roesler Gallery. 4) Félix Beltrán, Libertad Para Angela Davis (Freedom for Angela Davis), 1971. 5) Eva Björklund, Monster Chair, c. 1970. Photo: Claudia Monteagudo. 6) Clara Porset, Miguelito Armchair, 1960, linden tree wood and leather. Photo: David Avilés.A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century DesignExhibition Dates: June 15, 2023-September 22, 2024ArtMember Preview: June 14, 2024The new exhibition will feature furniture never exhibited outside of Cuba.An accompanying book will tell the story of a lost generation of design.Will be accompanied by two other exhibitions featuring contemporary Cuban artists and designers in A Modernist Regime: The Cuban Contemporary LensBloomfield Hills, ...

Tagged: 2024, Andrew Blauvelt, Laura Mott

Read More

Marco Castillo: The Hands of the Collector


Marco Castillo: The Hands of the Collector

As part of A Modernist Regime: The Contemporary Cuban Lens, the solo exhibition Marco Castillo: The Hands of the Collector features several bodies of work by the artist and prolific collector of Cuban mid-century design that he initially started to amass while working as part of the artist collective Los Carpinteros (1992–2018). Castillo incorporates the aesthetics derived from Cuban modernism in his practice to resurrect Cuban design history and to critique the oppression by the government against artists, designers, and intellectuals in Cuba. Many of the artworks are named after modernist Cuban architects and designers in homage to this forgotten generation of creators, including Gonzalo Córdoba, María Victoria Caignet, Iván Espín, Reinaldo Togores, Heriberto Duverger, Clara Porset, and Félix Beltrán—all of whom are featured in the companion historical exhibition, also on view at the museum, A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design. Castillo’s work often references the aerial view of the ...

Tagged: 2024, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cuba, Laura Mott

Read More

Cuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed)


Cuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed)

As part of A Modernist Regime: The Contemporary Cuban Lens, the exhibition Cuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed) features six artists and designers—Julío Llopíz Casal, Liliam Dooley, Anet Melo Glaria, Celia González Álvarez, Hamlet Lavastida, and Ernesto Oroza—that respond to the current conditions in Cuba. As of now, none of the artists live in Cuba, with some forced into exile. Over the past few years, the Cuban government has launched a campaign to suppress the artistic community and control creative production through official legislation, such as Decree 349, in an attempt to quell the outpouring of anti-government artwork and music. The exhibition features six new commissions that use their individual practices to mine these design and material histories to elucidate the past and imagine potential futures. As co-curator Abel González Fernández explains, “When looking at Cuba, we must recognize our fascinating, tragic, elegant, and complex Cuban history. What are we going to ...

Tagged: 2024, Andrew Blauvelt, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cuba, Laura Mott

Read More

A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design 


A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design

This exhibition is the first museum presentation on Cuban mid-century design anchored by an under-acknowledged collection of furniture and furnishings, examples of which have not been exhibited off the island.  Focused on the decades immediately following the Cuban Revolution (1959), A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Modern Design presents a small but prolific cohort of artists, designers, and architects who responded to the demands of a newly centralized economy, including the material constraints imposed by ensuing embargoes, popular demands for more equitable access to goods, and initial excitement about the role modern design could play in shaping a new society.  The exhibition includes the pioneering work of designers such as Clara Porset and the furniture produced through the Dujo brand and its successor line EMPROVA, led by Gonzalo Córdoba and María Victoria Caignet. In the 1960s, Dujo continued the trajectory of pre-revolutionary mid-century design to produce unique pieces that featured indigenous cultural references ...

Tagged: Andrew Blauvelt, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cuba, Laura Mott

Read More

20 contemporary artists create masterful tapestry of Black life at new Cranbrook Art Museum exhibition | One Detroit DPTV


Cranbrook Art Museum in the NewsPress CoverageSkilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott

Read More

A museum in Michigan honors artist LeRoy Foster | NPR


Cranbrook Art Museum in the NewsLeRoy Foster: Solo ShowPress Coverage

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott

Read More

Cranbrook presents ‘Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit’ | Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle


Cranbrook Art Museum in the NewsPress CoverageSkilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott

Read More

Detroit painter LeRoy Foster exhibition showcases mural rescued from demolition | Michigan Radio


Cranbrook Art Museum in the NewsLeRoy Foster: Solo ShowPress Coverage

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott

Read More

Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit @ Cranbrook Art Museum | Detroit Art Review


Cranbrook Art Museum in the NewsLeRoy Foster: Solo ShowPress CoverageSkilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott

Read More

LeRoy Foster: Solo Show


LeRoy Foster: Solo Show

One of Detroit’s most intriguing figures, artist LeRoy Foster (1925–1993) was an exceptional talent and a leading figure in the Black artistic community. Perhaps best known for his large mural at the Douglass Branch of the Detroit Public Library, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, (1972), Foster studied art at Detroit’s famed Cass Tech High School, the Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies) and, it is believed, at Cranbrook Academy of Art.Foster embodied his moniker “the Michelangelo of Detroit,” drawing inspiration from the drama of High Renaissance paintings. This passion also led him to study overseas in London and Rome, growing his deft skills in figuration. Conceived as a companion to the concurrent contemporary-art-focused exhibition, Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit, LeRoy Foster exemplifies the rich local history of Black realism.Foster was openly gay during a time of hostility and oppression towards the LGBTQ+ community ...

Tagged: 2023, Laura Mott

Read More