Updated August 17, 2018.
1. The Denver Art Museum will remain open while the North Building is being renovated. Learn about the lineup of current and upcoming exhibitions.
2. The museum is open seven days a week. Learn more about hours.
3. Select artworks from each of our collections will be on view in exhibitions like Stampede: Animals in Art and Ganesha: The Playful Protector, as well as future shows to be announced.
For a painting that is over 300 years old, The Virgin of Valvanera is in remarkably good condition. One would fully expect that a painting of this age has undergone several attempts at restoration (by both skilled and amateur hands). Contrary to what is usually the case, this painting has not incurred major structural damage in the form of tears or losses, has never been lined (i.e. attached to a secondary canvas or solid support material), and has not been severely over-cleaned or extensively repainted.
The DAM is amongst a small group of museums that have such a captivating card catalog.
As part of the research for the conservation treatment of the painting The Virgin of Valvanera, attributed to Cristóbal de Villalpando, a team from the Denver Art Museum traveled to Mexico City in March, 2017. There, the team was fortunate to visit several sites and meet with specialists on Mexican painting of the baroque period.
Art conservation is a field that encompasses a breadth of expertise. As we roll up our sleeves in anticipation of improvements and potential discoveries, a plan that will provide optimum preservation is essential.
Entering its seventh year, the Bank of America Art Conservation Project has funded more than 100 projects in 29 countries, on six continents. In 2016, the Denver Art Museum was among 21 institutions to receive one of these prestigious grants. As a result of this generous support, the conservation and New World curatorial departments will be able to undertake the full scope of historical and technical research as well as the conservation treatment of a very important painting from the museum's Spanish Colonial collection.
The Denver Art Museum is honored to announce that Anna and John J. Sie have pledged $12 million to support the North Building revitalization project.
For more than two decades, J. Landis (Lanny) and Sharon have been instrumental in guiding the vision of the Denver Art Museum and have provided a longstanding commitment to major programs, special exhibitions, and important acquisitions to the permanent collection.
With their transformational $25 million gift, the largest financial gift in the museum’s history, to revitalize the North Building, they have elevated this institution to new heights.
The Denver Art Museum today announced bold plans to make significant improvements to the iconic North Building.
In 1971, the North Building opened, allowing the museum to display its collections under one roof for the first time. Superstar Italian architect Gio Ponti designed the exterior while Denver-based James Sudler Associates designed the gallery spaces and interior. It was a radical decision to build a seven-story, 210,000-square-foot tower—one of the first high-rise museums built in the country—in Denver.
You may have recently seen Scottish Angus Cow and Calf—the larger-than-life bronze sculptures by artist Dan Ostermiller—getting their annual summer bath. Above and beyond their cleaning with a specialized mild detergent, the Cow and Calf sculptures needed other treatments, including re-patination and waxing, due to the constant physical interaction they receive from the public.
The highly realistic sculpture Linda by Colorado artist John DeAndrea has been a visitor favorite at the Denver Art Museum since it became a part of the collection in 1984. Linda is also an important work of contemporary art in which DeAndrea made innovative use of a material that was fairly new to art at the time: plastic. This is why Linda is of such interest to us in the museum’s conservation department. This is a material that has not yet stood the test of time, and we watch Linda carefully to understand how the plastic is aging.
In preparation for Creative Crossroads: The Art of Tapestry (now closed), the museum’s staff have been working on a Spanish Colonial table cover in PreVIEW (a behind-the-scenes visible staging area in our textile art gallery).
Curators have examined it and explored its history, and textile art conservators have been testing and repairing the tapestry. Follow this series of blogs to track their progress.