This is the second of two posts on "Detroit: The Dream Is Now," a just-published book of photos, essays and interviews. This installment has part of a three-page chapter introduction by local novelist Lynn Crawford, a founding board member of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) and a Kresge Literary Arts Fellowship recipient.
► Part One: Overview of the book and author-photographer Michel Arnaud.
By Lynn Crawford
There is an exciting, radiant, impossible-to-miss art scene percolating throughout the city. National and international media outlets are turning a serious eye to this development in Detroit. Much of the coverage, however, seems to suggest this surge of activity is new to the last few years.
Lynn Crawford at the African Bead Museum: "Detroit continues to be an art scene in process."
My art education started in 1975 at the DIA, but continued on throughout the mid- and late 1990s with the Heidelberg Project, using abandoned homes and yards as creative, humorous responses to the devastation of the 1967 rebellion; Olayami Dabls' African Bead Museum, weaving African history and heritage into urban Detroit; contemporary artist Susanne Hillberry in Birmingham (where I was introduced to Elizabeth Murray, Richard Artschwager); REVOLUTION in Ferndale (Peter Williams, Kara Walker); various Afreican and African American artists at the N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art in Detroit *Ed Clark, Howardena Pindell, Allie McGhee).
Thee are just a handful of places, among others, that laid a foundation for my education and, I believe, laid the foundation for the artistic surge we're experiencing today. This often-ignored connection between now and the past two to three decades is a topic many Detroiters are sensitive to. . . .
This new wave of fresh artists in Detroit is dramatic and (and welcome), but follows a tradition of intellectual and spiritual artistic production that has not been carefully attended to (i.e., documented).
Current Detroit artists and art spaces have a special set of binoculars, and they all lead to something different and interesting. Artists turn to, among other things, landscapes (urban, industrial, pastoral), things conceptual and political, and people.
The people! Take Desiree Kelly's arresting social commentary; the skillful abstraction of Allie McGhee; Tylonn Sawyer's sensitive portraits radiating complex gradations of depth and energy (I can think of no better example of the great line by Jules Verne: "Look with all your eyes, look.:")
The spaces themselves include some of the previously mentioned galleries and art spots, as well as relatively recent ones such as MOCAD, the fantastic Eastern Market murals, galleries that show international contemporary art such as Young World (a vast, rough space--no electricity or bathrooms--in a neighborhood not part of Detroit's upswing), and the elegant, forward-thinking Playground Detroit (in a space located close to downtown).
Is there something that connects works made and seen in Detroit? Maybe. I might venture: starting from scratch, weaving together the heart and the head. I might add optimism, a feeling of can-do without following established rules and procedures. A sense ultimately expressed best by what George N'Namdi refers to as "urban soul."
Detroit continues to be an art scene in progress. While there is, arguably, a Detroit aesthetic or vibe, ultimately any kind of art being made and shown anywhere is being made and shown in Detroit.
© 2017, Harry N. Abrams
► READ MORE: Lynn Crawford's full essay, the introduction and selected photos are posted by Google Books.
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