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.

"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.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.