August in Denver

At the Denver Art Museum: The Big Sweep by Coos van Bruggen and Claus Oldenberg, Lawrence Weiner's 

"As To Be in Plain Sight" across the street and you can just make out the Red Grooms "Shoot Out" to the right, on the roof.

I didn't get around to see much art on my short trip back to Denver in August.

This exhibition is headlining at the Denver Art Museum through Jan 9, 2011.  

I decided to pass.

Locking Piece.

I made a point of checking out the installation of Henry Moore sculptures at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  The nine month long exhibit places 20 of the artist's sizable works throughout the grounds. 
Visiting the Botanic gardens is one of the most urbane experiences Denver has to offer and the presence of these works just piles on that effect.
There are very few vistas in the gardens that belie urban surroundings beyond the perimeter of foliage.  The pervasively visible border between the natural and the constructed enhances the experience of the sculptures - from my view.  In most cases the sculptures, arrayed within the sweep of flora were seen in relation with some other architectural or man made detail within the field of view.  In the few instances, such as in the image directly below, where a work rests in isolation amidst a believably natural setting, the effect feels forced and contrived.  It's a great exhibit made even better by the ability to experience through the procession of seasons.

Large Totem Head

Large Reclining Figure

Reclining Figure: Arch Leg

Knife Edge Two Piece

Hill Arches

Goslar Warrior

Above and below: opposing views of Oval with Points

Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped

And then:

At the time, I puzzled over what this was trying to say - or why it needed to be said. 

Now I just don't know why it's on a bumper sticker.

Embracing the Beast

It's fitting that Embrace!, the exhibit of installations by 17 artists at the Denver Art Museum is closing on Easter, because viewing the exhibit is an Easter egg hunt of its own.
I visited the exhibit with my dad in November:

John McEnroe's suspended nylon forms The Bathers and Katharina Grosse's painting George (above and below.)

 Vertigo:  part of Katherina Grosse's piece on the Left, and Jessica Stockholder on the right. Stockholder's atrium element is connected to a larger installation in the second floor galleries (below) by an extra long orange extension cord as if it's a battery or solar power source.

Dasha Shishkin's Dying Christ Rushed to the Hospital. 

Tobias' Rehberger's Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson in the rain is a fun piece that evokes a Chuck E. Cheese bungee cord paradise which is nicely integrated into the second floor of the atrium

The atrium is lined on all levels with works that are seen in relation to one another.  This can be interesting, but it can also proffer the sense of an art fair on a vertical axis.
Additionly, a small area in the second floor galleries is dedicated to photographic documentation of the installation process of the various works would be (and is) a nice informative feature for the exhibition website, but its presentation in the gallery has a compromising effect on the exhibit.
How an installation is made can be interesting, but to draw attention to that aspect of the work while in the midst of it misses the mark entirely, threatening to reduce an exhibit to a collection of peculiar novelties. 
I recommend checking out the exhibition page on the museum's website for loads of pics and other info on all the works in the show.

El Anatsui's work Rain Has No Father? is installed in one of the small side galleries that houses a selection of African artifacts.  It's logical, the artist being African, that his work would be contextualized among African tribal artifacts, but given the dinky, uncomfortable nature of the space, the choice of  installation placement comes off seeming marginalized, obvious and perhaps a bit racist to me.

Kristen Baker's Dihedral Barrage holds a place of honor on the fourth floor.

Charles Sanderson's mesmerizing video installation Chamber, in a gallery all it's own was the most engrossing enveloping work, literally.  I would be surprised if it nobody took the initiative of experiencing this work under some sort of chemical influence....Although none such additive would be necessary to enhance the enveloping nature of the piece.


The spirit behind the exhibit is honorable.  It's a worthy effort in addressing a museum space that by its nature longs for a permanent Tino Sehgal installation.  

As we exited the Liebeskind designed Hamilton building via the passageway that crosses over Thirteenth Ave to the original Ponti building, we passed,  a young boy standing at the threshold to the Hamilton shouting to his father inside the Liebeskind space, "I don't want to go in there."  Out of the mouths of babes...

The Golden Fleece

Angelika flew out to join me for a few days around Thanksgiving, and with her came wintery, snowy weather infused with wonderful holiday atmosphere. The weather prior to her arrival had been in the '60s and 70's which is nice, but I was ready to feel the impending holiday season.


The plaza outside of the Denver Art Museum.

On Friday after Thanksgiving, we headed down to the Denver Art Museum. It was her first time to see the new Hamilton building. Currently on view at DAM is an exhibit of Color field painting, and an exhibit of objects from the Louvre called Artisans and Kings which required an additional special admission ticket of $8 over the $10 museum admission. Our friend John had an allotment of additional tickets to the exhibit so we didn't have to pay which was fortunate, because that would have been a horrendous waste of money had we had to shell it out ourselves. I have no problem paying an additional amount for a special exhibit at a museum, and I can appreciate the circumstances behind bringing a truly special exhibit to a venue. However, charging a premium for this exhibit is an extraordinarily cynical manuever on the part of the museum; throw the Louvre's lable on an exhibit, and the yoekels won't care what they're seeing. Hell, it's from the Louvre. Dig some crap out of the closet ship it to the new world and hold a glorified antiques road show in a $90.5M home? for contemporary art. The majority of the exhibit consists of well crafted over-the-top tacky decorative objects that had been personal possessions of of Louis and Marie Antoinette. As Angelika said, the history behind the objects is far more interesting than the actual objects. We were far more interested in the drawings included in two small galleries downstairs. Two small galleries. Sort of slim pickings to warrant an additional charge, and time stamped tickets. There's an uninspiring Titian painting, and a Velasquez portrait of La Infanta Margarita, the distinction of which, as promoted by the Museum, is that it was kept in Louis XIV's mother's bathing chamber.

How enlightening.

The additon of small oak curbs on the museum floors helps prevent folks from bruising their heads on the angle walls.

I guess I hope that the scheme to charge an extra premium was planned from the beginning, and it didn't arise as a strategy to make up for any shortfall in revenue given that this year's attendance numbers fell far short of projections, particularly as staff levels were drastically cut after the opening of the new wing.

It's an ok show-of decorative work, with some wonderful drawings, but there's no way in it warrants time specific tickets......

The Hamilton building's best interior attribute; the staircase.
The upside of Artisans and Kings being shown in the Anshutz Gallery is that Color as Field exhibit benefits by being seen in a gallery that does not detract from the work on display. This is a beautiful exhibit with many powerful paintings including a stunning, large ochre Motherwell, (the title of which I forget) some great Olitski's among many others. The Color as field exhibit is more than worth its price of admission. As this exhibit is tucked away in the main floor gallery in the North building, three or four paintings from the show are actually on display back in the Hamilton building, in order to draw traffic across the bridge to see the rest. Unfortunatly, these paintings play the role of sacrificial virgins which fare poorly at the hands of the killers of the sublime that are the Hamilton's galleries. Color as Field is on exhibit through Feb 3 and is worth a visit.

MCA's rooftop walkway as seen from below.

After leaving the valley of the DAMned we feasted on bison burgers in Larimer Square and then off to the newly opened but not quite finished MCA . The new building designed by David Adjaye sported unpainted joint compound patches on the walls and unpainted grinded down welds on the metal handrails above the atrium. The building provides a maze-like unfolding as you move from gallery to and floor to floor. The current offering is the inaugural exhibit "Star Power: Museum as Body Electric", featuring the work of seven artists from seven countries.

MCA's cafeteria

Before I was politely busted for taking photos in the rooftop museum's cafeteria I did manage to snap a few shots. I look forward to returning to this space in the future. The scale of the building is such that provides succinct a dose of contemporary art with out being overwhelmed right in the heart of LoDo.
From the MCA, we stopped into the Tattered Cover for hot beverages and extendsive magazine perusal. And I bought a book.

In the belly of the beast

I took advantage of some free time on Saturday to visit the new Libeskind addition to the Denver Art Museum.
It's been a pleasure stopping by from time to time, to check in on the progress of the construction of the building, as the skeletal structure of the extension stood on its own as sculpture.

The exterior of the new Hamilton wing is dynamic, and the exterior public space created by this building in relation to the Central Public Library and Gio Ponti's original museum building is extraordinary. The exterior composition of Libeskind's building and the manner it sits in its environment, represent the best element of the building, but it also signifies the greatest failing of the edifice. This is obviously a structure designed from the outside in, with the resulting pressures bearing heavily upon the shoulders of artwork and visitor contained in the spaces within.

After the assertive, powerful elements looming overhead outside, I was considerably underwhelmed by the lobby which felt unnecessarily heavy, dark and contractor grade. The high point of the effect that the pushing and pulling of the structure's skin has on the interior is the dizzying sensation of vertigo one gets as one looks down at the staircase from the third and fourth floors. It's down right Hitchcockian. It's also the singular saving grace on the interior of the building.
As the Hamilton Wing was opening last fall, The Denver Post's Kyle Macmillan wrote an article with the head line "As Art and as a home for art, it succeeds" As architecture as sculpture, I think it does work, but as a home for art, it certainly doesn't. Art doesn't own this home, it's simply renting. There are so many expansion joints, shadow lines, and compromised installation choices that the effect of the space is actively competing with the artwork. At virtually every turn, the building elbows into one's field of vision, vying for attention saying "Yeah, that Motherwell is ok, but Motherwell and Libeskind, now THAT's a combination." In a recent interview on Colorado Public Radio, DAM Director Lewis Sharp spins the performance of Libeskind's design, saying that the building is anything but neutral. True. Unfortunately this non neutrality does little more than neuter the the very work it was meant to showcase.

There's much to riff on like the odd auxiliary galleries housing some Oceanic and African artifacts located off of the main contemporary galleries which are very obviously unintentional spaces resulting from the building's structure that had to be filled. More afterthought than curatorial intention, these spaces do nothing but add to the adhoc sensation presented as one moves through the galleries.

The selection and placement of work throughout the modern/contemporary galleries is a perfunctory survey through time. Perhaps bowing to the years of bellyaching of local artists that there has been no homegrown contemporary work on exhibit, there are a couple of hometown artists displayed among other work in the collection. A boon to Phil Bender is the placement of one of his arrangement of hubcaps among the Irwin, Judd, and Lewitt pieces. Bender's piece stands out for me as one that perhaps shows an affinity of spirit with these other notable artists, but his presence here feels more like the little brother out on the baseball field only because the older kids are one shy of fielding a full team.

The Anshutz Gallery on the Second floor which is just about the only area in the building with plumb walls. The current exhibit is Radar, selections from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan. It's reaffirming to be moving through a space with right angles. The drawback in this space for me are the free standing walls that, given the polygonal footprint of the gallery are arrayed in a series of almost parallel partitions that create shallow funnels that at the bottom of which create a log jam of art and audience.

What surprised me most about moving about the new extension was the completely subconscious sense of relief and unburdening that I felt as I traversed the second floor footbridge into the original Ponti designed North building. The first floor of the Ponti building felt like a neglected ghost town, which I imagine will change, and non too soon, for I feel that this it where the soul of the museum still rests.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the curatorial staff will rise to the considerable challenge of learning how to install work in the Libeskind space that hits. It's not impossible for this to happen, however, the potential for it happening might be limited by the political understanding of what the public was paying for when the addition was approved, because the best use of this building may well be contrary to how the building's use was originally pitched.