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.
In the galleries on level seven of the North Building hangs a large oval canvas titled Shoshone Indians at a Mountain Lake. You can’t miss it—mounted in a gilded frame, this brightly colored landscape is an eye-catcher!
Recently, it was my task to research Shoshone Indians at a Mountain Lake and write an essay on the painting. What I learned in a nutshell:
If you’ve stopped by the photography gallery since the end of September only to find the doors closed, you’ve probably been awaiting the next exhibition: Laura Letinsky: Still Life Photographs, 1997–2012. While the show opens on October 28th, plenty of work has been going on behind the scenes to ensure the gallery—and the artwork—will be ready for the opening.
The final Untitled of 2012 has arrived and we’re going out with a big one. Get your Untitled fix filled on October 26 before our annual two-month hiatus.
During Untitled #52 (Written Off), we will be celebrating the new exhibition Becoming Van Gogh with a look at artists and ideas forgotten in their own time, the act of writing, and the art of text.
Local artist and University of Denver professor Laleh Mehran said she first started thinking about her installation at the Denver Art Museum in 2009. The modern and contemporary art curator at the time, now DAM director, Christoph Heinrich had seen some of Mehran’s work and asked her to create something for the Fuse Box gallery. The unique space on level four of the Hamilton Building is dedicated to exploring emerging artists in the new media field.
The slanted walls and ceilings of the Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum call for some creativity when it comes to hanging certain kinds of artworks. El Anatsui’s wall sculptures, featured in the exhibition El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, were one such case.
Vincent Van Gogh loved to experiment with his materials, creating works on paper, canvas, and pasteboard with paints, ink, chalk, and watercolor among many other media. While Van Gogh didn’t often draw on brown craft paper, the DAM team is using these templates as stand-ins for the real works. The paintings in the exhibition Becoming Van Gogh haven’t arrived yet, but we are preparing the galleries for their installation. Walls have been constructed and painted and the team gathered today to discuss the paintings’ placement in the gallery.
Need any Victorian wigs, plastic doilies, or perhaps a top hat? The DAM's props from Untitleds past are up for grabs at tonight's Untitled #51 (Second Life). Untitled organizer extraordinaire, Jaime Kopke, shared the list of what you could find on the Second Life Swap Cart that will be roaming the Hamilton Building atrium throughout the evening:
There is a lot to be excited about at the Denver Art Museum right now. In September we opened the first retrospective of the master of transformation El Anatsui. Our blockbuster exhibition Becoming Van Gogh goes on view at the end of October, and in November we highlight the work of contemporary artist Dana Schutz in her first career survey. Throw in a new contemporary art curator and the launch of our latest bilingual program CelebrARTE, and you'll find the DAM in a mix of wonderful media coverage. Read below to see what people are writing.
Even after a really big year—exclusive U.S. venue for Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective and the only venue in the world for Becoming Van Gogh—we’re not resting on our laurels in 2013. We have an exciting mix of exhibitions that crisscross the globe. Read below for a sneak peak at the current 2013 lineup.
Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico: Architecture, Katsinam and the Land
February 10–April 28, 2013
Did you know that about 90 percent of the Denver Art Museum’s collection is not on display at any given time? With all the exhibitions and gallery rotations, those works all get their chance to spend time in the public eye, but many of them are sensitive to light and must have lots of time to rest. The exhibitions and collections services staff spend their days making sure that those collections in storage are cared for and stored in ideal conditions.