Preserving Variable Media at the DAM
The Denver Art Museum actively is collecting "variable media" artworks.
The Denver Art Museum actively is collecting "variable media" artworks.
Untitled is one of those programs at the Denver Art Museum where you really have to be there to experience the magic.
I had one of those "I work in a really cool place" moments a few weeks ago.
Lisa Steffen, our educator in charge of access programs, sent me an e-mail that her team had created a tactile tour of Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective for visitors who are visually impaired or blind. My interest was immediately piqued. How could she translate a fashion exhibition into something that could be experienced through other senses? I had to investigate and decided to invite some media to take in the experience as well. We all arrived at the museum, not sure what to expect.
This month’s late night program, Untitled #48 (Anonymous), is taking it to the streets with crowd-sourced activities, anonymous art, and connections between strangers.
MakeARTtalk, the series where we ask local creatives to make a new work inspired by the DAM and its collections, will feature Matt Scobey and David Coccagna. The pair will be activating anonymous corners of the museum with their work and hosting mini-tours throughout the evening.
During Untitled #47 (LOL), the Denver Art Museum was lucky enough to partner with the hilarious duo behind the Humor Code, Peter McGraw and Joel Warner. This self-proclaimed scholar and skeptic travel the globe researching what makes things funny. During Untitled, the pair hosted an interactive Q&A about the science of funny with comedian Ben Roy, and also cooked up a study (with Untitled visitors as the subjects) that was simultaneously serious and silly.
Yves Saint Laurent. If you have decent vision and are in Denver, these words are likely familiar. Since Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective opened at its lone US stop, the Denver Art Museum, in March, the title has been splashed across billboards and on buses, storefronts, street banners, and magazine ads.
When you see it, how do you say or read it?
If you are still perfecting your French pronunciation of the late iconic fashion designer’s name, you are not alone.
The Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective exhibition has brought haute couture to the Denver Art Museum, and let me tell you, these mannequins don’t travel light. The 200 mannequins displayed in the exhibition wear everything from tuxedos to African-inspired evening gowns. Every hat, coat, and dress travelled from Paris by plane, train, and automobile to make their US debut. Here are just a few of the statistics from the installation of Yves Saint Laurent.
The 32-foot tall, bright blue sculpture between the Hamilton Building and the Clyfford Still Museum is For Jennifer by Joel Shapiro. On a chilly weekend in November 2011, the DAM’s newest outdoor sculpture was installed. Constructed of aluminum, the sculpture gets its signature color from an innovative matte polyurethane paint. The blue paint is slightly translucent and was sprayed over an ultra-white sealer to bring out the intensity of the hue. The matte finish gives the color depth and a velvety richness.
Many of us have seen small, super-strong magnets in toys like Buckyballs sets and NeoCubes. These are called rare-earth magnets as they are made using elements such as neodymium and samarium that are classified as rare earth metals. These magnets appear in all kinds of everyday items including jewelry, guitars, speakers, cordless tools and even hybrid vehicles.
But how many of us have ever considered hanging art with magnets?
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There are some pretty great and little known jobs preformed behind the scenes at the Denver Art Museum. Among them is the role of caring for and protecting the artwork by keeping it clean while it is on display. The Denver Art Museum is closed to the public every Monday, and our collection management staff takes advantage of that quiet time to mount an attack on two of the biggest threats to artwork in the museum – dust and insects.
So why are dust and insects so harmful?
Dust
Have you ever taken an inkblot test? It’s a psychological test where a person is shown an image of an ink blot pressed between two sides of a piece of paper to create mirror images of a blot, then asked what they see. Although there are no correct answers, the most common images people see are butterflies and people’s faces. But have you ever seen cows in an ink blot test? A new exhibition at the Denver Art Museum might just remind you of an ink blot test and prompt you to question, “Where’s the beef?”
One exhibit on view at the DAM through November 2014 highlights how art was an essential part of daily life in Spanish America. Personal Effects: Art & Home in South America includes a number of small jewel-like objects of the highest quality—polychromed wood and ivory sculpture, exquisite pieces of silver, a magnificent illuminated manuscript and a portrait miniature painted on ivory. Many of the objects on view were prized possessions while serving practical domestic functions such as storing jewelry and writing materials.