When architect Eliel Saarinen moved to the US and designed Cranbrook, he brought his Finnish heritage with him.
Author Archives: Janet Tyson
Janet Tyson is an independent art historian, critic and artist. She lives and works in a semi-rural part of Michigan for about nine months a year, and in London for about three months a year.
A Multisensory Installation Inspired by the Humble Honeybee
Wolfgang Buttress’s “The Hive” is an environment designed to amplify public awareness of the critical situation of bees.
Recognizing the Contributions of Regionalism at the Turn of the 20th Century
INDIANAPOLIS — In the mid-1970s, when my new, Hoosier husband first took me to visit Indianapolis, the city seemed haunted by the ghosts of middlebrow culture.
In a City with Polluted Water, Flint’s Artists and Cultural Organizations Help Cope with the Crisis
FLINT, Mich. — When President Obama visited Flint a few weeks ago and took note of peoples’ feisty attitude, I was relieved to have my own perceptions echoed by someone I trust, who probably has spent about as much — or more accurately, as little — time in the city as I have.
Three Museums Come Together to Tell a History of African American Art
MUSKEGON, Mich. — Common Ground, the Muskegon Museum of Art’s current exhibition of African American art, combines works from three regional Michigan collections: the Muskegon museum, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and the Flint Institute of Arts.
Witty Mashups Without Meaning
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Jiha Moon’s colorful mixed-media works are in the collections of the Asia Society in New York and the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among other US institutions.
Imperialism and Its Discontents at Tate Britain
LONDON — Artist and Empire contains something for everyone, ranging from fierce pride to loathing, as well as everything in between.
Suspended Glass Sculptures Visualize Cities’ Population Booms
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It might seem like a leap, using gorgeous studio glass objects to convey potentially alarming data about population growth, but Norwood Viviano pulls the two together very persuasively.
An Exhibition Ponders (and Perpetuates) the Hierarchy Between “Art” and “Craft”
LONDON — Losing the Compass, at White Cube in London’s Mason’s Yard, aspires to critique geographical, aesthetic, and other sorts of hierarchies.
An Oblivious but Ambitious Artistic Intervention in White
LONDON — white, Edmund de Waal’s intervention at the Royal Academy (RA) library, is a wonder.
Saturnine Portraits Somewhere Between Damascus and Berlin
LONDON — Pictures by the Damascus-born, Berlin-based artist Marwan Kassab-Bachi are neither Arab nor European, Syrian nor German, but occupy the liminal space that diasporic people find themselves in.
An Encounter with Kara Walker’s Poignantly American Work in the UK
LONDON — Kara Walker’s Go to Hell or Atlanta, Whichever Comes First is a powerful, nuanced visual rant.