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.
Untitled #51 (Second Life) on September 28 looks at re-purposing, repair, and a dose of reincarnation. This month, we celebrate the newest exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa. Chat with Eric Berkemeyer, curatorial assistant in the native arts department, as he gives you the inside scoop on installing the El Anatsui exhibition and how the artist transforms everyday materials into extraordinary artworks.
El Anatsui, world-renowned contemporary artist and the man behind the recent retrospective El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa at the DAM, gives off a quiet presence. When I first met him in the gallery, he smiled, said hello, and that was about it. So I wasn’t sure what to expect from his Logan Lecture on September 5. I—and I think the entire audience—soon was blown away by his storytelling and enraptured in the thought and meaning behind each artwork. Below are a few key quotes (and some context) that I jotted down from the evening.
You'll be hard-pressed to find a 90-degree angle in the Daniel Libeskind-designed Hamilton Building. That was part of what inspired Colorado artist Laleh Mehran to place a monumental black cube in the level four Fuse Box space. Playfully calling her installation—Men of God, Men of Nature—a collaboration between herself and Libeskind, Mehran shines a light on the physical and metaphorical multi-dimensionality of the deceptively simple shape.
Teachers, on top of your TCAP, ELA, and IEP efforts, don't forget to make some time to enjoy the DAM and the tools we offer. Here are 5 things for teachers to do with the Denver Art Museum this fall:
Have you ever had trouble hanging a photo on a wall at home? How about trying to hang two or three together in an arrangement? A museum exhibition is the display of art on a much larger scale and as you can imagine the challenges are larger too.
Throughout history, chairs have symbolized the life and times of a designers and consumers.
Summer is coming to an end and so is our first exhibition sourced entirely from the public, Open For Design: A DAM Community Challenge. Submission pick-up day is September 4. You still have a few more days to see the inspiring works made by Colorado residents before it closes September 2.
Currently on view in our level seven photography gallery is a show dedicated to the American photographer Garry Winogrand. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Winogrand explored the creative possibilities of photographing on the streets or in crowds. When he sensed the composition of a picture falling into place, Winogrand would quickly raise his camera to his eye and take candid photos of anonymous people (or so he thought, but more on that in a bit).
This month Untitled #50 (Jet Set) celebrates architecture and the glamour of travel in the exhibition Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + The Architecture of Flight. Our list of creative collaborators for this program is one impressive roster including: the state historian, former Pan Am stewardesses, a model maker, an industrial designer, participants from the Open For Design exhibition, local artists, and artists on the road.
I am a native Denverite and have a few scattered memories of the Denver Art Museum from my childhood. One of the earliest was from a visit with my mother when I was in the first grade in 1987. Only one thing has remained with me from that visit: the towering totem poles in the American Indian art's Northwest Coast gallery. Their size and intricacy is impressive to me still, but as a child they were gargantuan. I remember wondering how they were ever installed.
Denver Art Museum said “see you later” and not goodbye to Cathey McClain Finlon this month at a celebratory breakfast at Palettes honoring her accomplishments as president. Cathey announced her plans to retire from her three-year tenure as president of the museum this spring, and plans to continue her longtime affiliation with the DAM as a member of its Board of Trustees.
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