From far away in New York, I saw the email in disbelief. “Must be someone else with the same name” was my first thought. But it was true, Detroit artist and musician, Matt Blake had died of a heart attack on Friday, May 9th.

I didn’t know him as well as I’d have liked, but I’d had the pleasure to write about his work on several occasions, and in trying to think of a way to describe him, I keep coming back to thinking of him as a “sweet” guy – utterly genuine. In looking back to what I’d written of his work, I found some key themes that stuck out that might serve as description: “playful,” “delightful,” and “beautiful and serious.” I think of the joy he gave (and must have felt) in resurrecting old toys, things rescued from the trash, and making them into something beautiful, something joyful all over again. For me, his works retrieved pieces of our childhood and I smile thinking about them now.

He did so with great skill. In a review, Mike Richison wrote on Blake’s facility as maker: “Regardless of the tools and materials Matt Blake decides to use – found objects, saw blades, paint brushes, drumsticks or small black shapes that look like military aircraft – he always seems to know what to do with them.” Others who knew him better will have a great deal more to say, and Rebecca Mazzei has a short tribute for Matt at MetroTimes, which will be followed by a longer piece next week. Check that out here. Details about memorial tributes are below.

Look at some of our past words on Blake in reviews of his shows at:
Oakland University; Susanne Hilberry; Motor City Brewing Works (by Mike Richison); Heavy Alien Chevy (at DAM) (by Kevin Ewing); Johanson Charles “Telephone” (collaborative):

Our thoughts and support go out to his wife Hazel, his family, his friends, and Detroit’s arts community, which has lost a source of delight and play far too soon. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

FROM METRO TIMES:

In a tribute to Blake, “This Week in Art” presents a one-night exhibition of his work. Guests who would like to share work by Blake which they own can contact Graem Whyte at graemwhyte@yahoo.com or 313-832-2700. “This Week in Art” runs from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Wednesday, May 14, at Motor City Brewing Works, 470 W. Canfield, Detroit; 313-832-2700.

A memorial gathering will be held at 4 p.m., Thursday, May 15, on the third floor of the Piquette Model T Plant, 461 Piquette Ave., Detroit. Please call Susan Hilberry Gallery at 248-541-4700 for further information. There is elevator access. Check metrotimes.com for updated information. If you would like to share a few lines about Matt, please write to Rebecca Mazzei at rmazzei@metrotimes.com by Friday, May 16.

Excerpts from two of our past reviews on Blake:

At Susanne Hilberry (2005): Matthew Blake offers an unprecedented opportunity to reference the fabled Elgin Marbles (on view in the British Museum) for the second time in as many months. Last time it was with Snider and Hocking’s Relics, which I referred to as the Elgin Marbles of our time. Here, Blake has purposefully created works out of our detritus, rummage sale refuse, and by careful conglomeration has elevated the status of such junk into essential elements of modern temple statuary. Instead of grey eyed Athena and ferocious centaurs, we have grey painted Incredible Hulk, Transformers, army men and more. As past cultures had their heroes, their mythology, Blake depicts these toys and icons from our youth, our past in that same light. To a culture that forgets its own history almost immediately, where history flip flops with the turn of public opinion, these are modern shrines to our not so distant past. He’s created meaningful altars (note, the various elements are juxtaposed thematically and with great intent) as was done in antiquity to hold up our past in a quite beautiful and serious, if playful, sort of way.

Oakland University (2006): Matt Blake also connects to mythology – using superhero figurines and other toys and trinkets from garage sales to build classic looking friezes with modern day imagery. The look of something uncovered in an archaeological dig is accentuated by a smart use of paint providing a rich range of patina-like surfaces over the otherwise wildly colorful objects. As the Greeks preserved their stories and history in such works, Blake captures a point in our own history, both a memory of childhood and the stories that these characters inhabit. Blake collapses whole genres of figures and settings into a single space as to almost construct a grand narrative, though that task is left to the imagination of the viewer, much as the discoverers of statuary past attempt to reconstruct the ancient tales. Blake makes inspired choices as to what he puts alongside one another – Batman, the Flash, the Thing, and other superheroes hang out together in a Valhalla of heroism in one, while horses and old sailing ships are together in another speak to the romance of another time. In a time when the rich myths that played such a significant role in times past have been discarded in favor of doctrine, such fables have been relegated to kid stuff that we are supposed to outgrow. Blake has rescued these from the trash and given them a new and delightful existence and meaning.