I’ve been cleaning the Canaletto, taking my Q-tips to the surface and gently removing all of the restorer-applied discolored varnish and overpaint. Upon removal of some overpaint, an area discussed in our earlier video post, I discovered a turret, or tower. This is a pretty exciting discovery. While it doesn't make a lot of visual sense in the context of the painting, it is nevertheless interesting and makes one wonder if it was overpainted in the first place because it didn't work or if there was some other reason.
It's likely you have a photograph, painting, illustrated card, or drawing that just doesn't look the same as it did when you first brought it home. Heck, you probably have a shirt that isn't as bright as it once was and maybe there's a stain or two on it reminding you of a not-so-graceful moment. The world is a tough place and the effects of temperature, light, water/humidity, and other humans mark us and our things without fail.
Editor’s note: Please find more recent posts about offers in The Shops.
Despite its size, this clever little table seems to defy logic with its moving parts and what it can do. Acquired by the museum in 2005, it is now on view for the first time in the David W. and Ellen N. Moore Decorative Arts Gallery on level six of the North Building. The table was made in England of mahogany, brass, and gilded metal trimmings around 1820. It has a silk compartment and elaborately carved legs and feet.
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If weekend traffic to the Colorado mountains feels like an inconvenience to the modern traveler, put yourself in the shoes of American landscape painter Charles Partridge Adams.
Being prepared for an emergency requires forethought, communication, and resources. The Denver Art Museum and other institutions that serve as caretakers for collections have a responsibility to develop an emergency response plan. Here are some of the steps that we have taken with our Emergency Response Plan and how you can take similar precautions with your collection at home—be it art, letters, photographs, or other items you care about.
Now that the painting has gotten a thorough check-up and health assessment by the curatorial and conservation teams, it is time to decide how best to treat it.
How does a painter begin to paint the impossible? For Dana Schutz, who doesn’t paint from observation or photographic sources, the process of visualizing events no one has ever seen before begins in her imagination and involves both asking a lot of questions and methodically developing answers. Often, one of those questions is not “What does an action look like?” but “What does it feel like?” In order to communicate feelings, Schutz relies on evocative titles, dozens of colors developed through hours of mixing paint, lists of possibilities to consider, and numerous sketches.
This fall, The Museum Associates, and other museum patrons and sponsors gathered to celebrate the opening of Becoming Van Gogh, this year’s beacon exhibition. Membership at the Denver Art Museum has many benefits, and members become donors at The Museum Associates levels. This upper level membership offers participants the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the DAM while building a deeper relationship with the museum through special events with curators and access to one-of-a-kind exhibitions like Becoming Van Gogh.
Dana Schutz is considered one of the most influential young artists right now. On top of that, she can be funny, unfiltered but respectful, and self-deprecating in person. Chuckles and an occasional guffaw could be heard as she spoke about her process and observations as a 2012 Denver Art Museum Logan Lecture series speaker November 7. She also shared some of her only-Dana-Schutz commentary at the Dana Schutz: If the Face Had Wheels media preview November 8. The exhibition, a 10-year survey, opens to the public November 11. Ten nuggets that I noted:
Sleight of Hand closed on November 25, 2013. This visually interactive exhibition presented 14 contemporary artists, born between the 1930s and 1960s. Their works surprise the eye while challenging and intriguing our powers of perception.
For a traveling exhibition like El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa, the preparator's job starts the moment a truck delivering art parks at our dock. An assessment of the appearance of the vehicle, demeanor of the drivers, and how the crates are secured inside the truck are all clues as to how well the works have been treated. We also do a quick inspection of the outside of the crate as they are removed from the truck to see if there is evidence it has been mishandled.