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DAM Fine Sights

(Best viewed on computers or tablets)
 

"Follow the Masters! But why should we follow them? The only reason they are the Masters is that they didn't follow anybody!" — Paul Gauguin 1895

 

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is a world class surprise and well worth a visit after but especially during its current exhibit Modern Masters: 20th Century Icons from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery NY (through June 8, 2014). 

 

The buildings housing the collections are unique works of art in themselves. The 7-story North Building, designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti, rises from downtown Denver, Colorado like an imposing Norman-Italianate fortress out of the Middle Ages. That should keep everything safe. Early one evening I was fortunate to capture the sunlight shimmering off the exterior cladding of more than one million gray tiles (photo above right).

 

The newer Frederic C. Hamilton Building by architect Daniel Libeskind reflects not only the surrounding mountain peaks but also geometric rock crystals found in the foothills of the Rockies. With art as their bloodline, the sibling buildings are a study in contrast: one sleek, the other solid, both expressive by design. 

 

Modern Masters ‘brings together approximately 50 iconic artworks by more than 40 influential artists from the late 19th century to the present, providing an opportunity to witness the major stylistic developments that shaped the course of modern art.’

 

‘It features masterpieces by some of the most prominent names in art history including Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol as well as one of the finest drip paintings ever created by Jackson Pollock’.

 

At the DAM’s “sister” Clyfford Still Museum next door a related exhibition 1959: The Albright Art Gallery Exhibition Recreated is devoted to Still’s landmark exhibition held at the Albright-Knox in the fall of that year. On until June 15, 2014. 

 

* My wife and I flew from Toronto to Denver on one of the new Air Canada non-stop flights.

 

 

 

 

Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA

The North Building

Red Grooms, Shoot Out, 1982, roof sculpture

Entrance to the Modern Masters exhibit

Dow Corning designed  tiles

        Frederic C. Hamilton Building

Jackson Pollock, Convergence, 1952. Pollock would spread his paint on the floor to work.

Laura Burchard, Protective Services. "I'm a visual person...We're allowed to wear our own shirts, ties and socks."

Andy Warhol, 100 Cans, 1962. "I think everyone should be a machine" — Warhol

Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Denver Art Museum, DAM, Colorado, USA
Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA
Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA
Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA

 Museum donors' handprints adorn one of the walls — a great idea!

 

Children in one of the play areas

Elevator door for handicapped visitors

 

Like the entire complex, the view from the enclosed bridge over 13th Street is meant to spark creative thinking.

The Museum Shop does double duty as a coffee shop.

DAM is a museum with a view...of foothills to the Rockies.

Clyfford Still began painting in Alberta, as shown in this landscape of a grain elevator. He became uniquely associated with the Albright-Knox as a result of his gift of 31 paintings to that institution in 1964. 

Entrance to the Clyfford Still Museum. A single ticket allows admission to both the Denver Art and the Still Museum.

The Clyfford Still Museum stands in marked contrast to the DAM with its austere concrete interior concentrating attention solely on the large paintings.

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