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4-E--THE SUNDAY NEWS--Detroit, June 21, 1970

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BLACK ART—Invited to exhibit in Detroit recently by Rep. Conyers Jr. and a group of the black community's business leaders, Chicago painter Norman Parish talked about black art generally and the "Wall of Respect" in particular. He was among nine artists to work on Chicago's "Wall" three years ago and did the Malcolm X section. Parish says the black aesthetic is too young "for a full explanation," but contends the label "black art" helps pull the movement together. Trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, Parish expects to return to Detroit this summer to do portraits of Conyers and others.

A tour of art in Detroit

By JOY HAKANSON
News Art Critic

  Despite summer's usual slowdown, the galleries have some worthwhile exhibits on tap.
  The Detroit Institute of Arts has booked a traveling survey by black artist Henry O. Tanner (1859-1937) from July 8 through Aug. 23. Also, the museum will keep Robert H. Tannahill's collection intact through Aug. 16.
  Gertrude Kasle opened May Wilson's "Grandma-Moses-of-the-underground" assemblages and Philip van Brunt's collages this weekend. This show will stay until the Fisher Building Gallery closes for an August vacation.
  On Monday, the Detroit Artists Market on Harmonie Park will preview "Finders Keepers," an exhibit from 25 area artists "discovered" during the season.  Through July 14.

  GLASS JURIED by Wayne State University Prof. Phillip Fike makes the current event at Hanamura-Hagopian Gallery on West Eight Mile. Among artists included are Richard Ritter, Bob Sestock, Kent F. Ipsen, Jack Schmidt and C. Fritz Driesbach.
  J. L. Hudson Gallery, Troy, has "Graphics for the Young Collector" through June 30. London Arts hung a group show by such artists as Calder, Hajdu and Stanczak and called it "Mixed Bag."
  Annuals by the area's professional art schools are up at Wayne State University and Cranbrook Academy, where students will be featured until Labor Day. Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts will open June 25.

  WSU ANNUAL:  Since Wayne State's 34th exhibit only has one more week to run, there's some urgency about catching the highlights. The show was divided into two parts with the first devoted to craftsmen and designers and the current section to painters, sculptors, graphics artists and photographers.
  WSU is becoming known as an "idea" center with such object pieces as Gerald Daenzer's "Inflatable Coats" (activated by a vacuum cleaner motor);  David Sabaroff's raw wood ladder; Howard Haarer's Duchampian "Door Knob Container;" Nancy Kutnick's marvelously raggy sewing-machine stitchery and Sonia Slobojan's funky wash dryer called "Pre-Soaked in Axion."
  In comparison Jack Krause's rusted metal "Boomcer Blonk" and Mark Loveland's curved "Tube" seem the most classical of sculptures.
  Like most student shows these days, WSU's comes over like a little New York. It ranges from pure idea to completely boiled out realism as practiced by Grubola in his double portrait and by Richard Mueller in his black and white painting "Sherry Piet." 
  Painter Bradley Jones, with his ominous, black-white imagery rooted in the comic strip, turned in an impressive performance. So did figurative sculptor Ed Kasprowicz, who fixed manic energy in bronze. These two share a show within the big show.

  BAA'S BRITISH: By America's new standards, the "British Designer Craftsmen" now exhibiting at Bloomfield Art Association in Birmingham are sedate and low-keyed in their handling of clay, fiber, metal, wood and plastic. Yet the exhibit selected by the British Committee of the World Crafts Council for circulation by the Smithsonian Institution manages to be beautiful as well as satisfying.
  Where "Objects: U.S.A." (shown earlier this season at Cranbrook) stressed the revolution in American crafts, the British exhibit cherishes the continuity of tradition in the hands of functional potters such as Bernard Leach and weavers like Peter Collingwood (who does natural linen wall hangings).
  This is not to suggest that British craftsmen are back in the dark ages redoing old forms in the same old ways. But their present show does indicate that the U.S. idea of wiping out distinctions between painting, sculpture and the crafts hasn't caught on in England yet.
  Outstanding works include giant wool and nylon banners by Margaret Traherne; handsome nut crackers by Robert Welch; a silver box by Tony Laws; a machine-embroidered fabric collage by Richard Box; carved alphabets by Davis Lindersley; a rich cope designed by Ceri Richards and made by Chichester Cathedral's needlework guild. Through June 28.

  MICHAEL MILLER: He weaves rain clouds and onions, grass and square people. Who? Michael Miller, who is being introduced in his first major Michigan exhibit through June 30 at Birmingham Gallery.
  Called "Sculptural Weaving," Miller's collection is witty, satiric, funny, inventive. He does risky things such as stuffing dolls and outfitting them with gas masks. Or planting wool grass in a lucite block. Or weaving a white American flag, a black box or clouds that drip wool "rain."
  He keeps hs [[his]] satire in as low a key as his colors, which are predominantly black, white and brown.
  Now teaching at Groves High School in Birmingham, Miller took his bachelor's degree from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. and his master's at Wayne State University. He also studied at Haystack School in Maine.