I was ready to leave Estes Park and the mountains for now to see the art museums in Denver. Since I arrived Sunday night and museums are closed Monday, I had to back track. This was the first time I had woken up before noon Indiana time. I did not want to wake too early as to hit Denver rush hour though. The early morning light on the mountains was a nice change.
The road out of the Rockies was spectacular when I came in, but now since I saw the untouched Rockies they didn't pack as much of a punch.
The change from mountains to completely flat is so dramatic. There are mountains then there aren't, simple as that. Denver's skyline doesn't look great at all, but most of the buildings downtown aren't that tall and are very modern.
the new portion of the Denver Art Museum is a crazy looking building. It has an overhang that goes straight out over the road and almost touches the old portion on the other side.
Before iIwent inside I toured the "Golden Triangle" district.
This dumpster was covered in Denver Museum stickers. And this facade being exposed made for a very inviting graffiti spot.
When I walked inside the new portion of the museum, the walls were crazy shifty everywhere. The temporary exhibition was great, it had all sorts of artists do installations all over the building. the stairwell had this persons work that I enjoyed. I eventually realized whos it was, I bet Tre can figure it out. the extension cord confused the hell out of me as to where it was going but that made sense later.
Erin K. Drew, this reminded me of you. There were cut out paper words on the back wall that looked like Erin's handwriting.
Right next to this room was full of western themed paintings of cowboys, sort of like the Eiteljorg. The only one that I liked had this bear eating a deer it stole from wolves. Old people LOVED this gallery. It put them at ease because they were pissed off at what else was in the museum. I hope I don't hate the crazy shit that other artists will make in the distant future.
This woman is Jessica Stockholder. I knew straight away with out seeing her name anywhere. After realizing where that extension cord went (it shined a spotlight on this installation) I just knew. Her work amazed little kids. The painted chair pissed kids off, well they were pissed at their parents for not letting them sit on it. More chair stuff in a bit.
Grommets and vinyl, a lot of the work i saw in the museum reminded me of all the damn good artists in Indianapolis.
That kid snuck a sit on the chair when his mom wasn't looking.
This room installation was too messy for my taste, but the imagery was subtle and dirty as hell which I enjoyed. Dudes on dudes on dudes on dudes riding girls peeing, all in a cafe.
Kids just made this museum trip fun. I really enjoyed seeing how much they loved the work and how involved they got to be. This room was completely filled with bunjie cords strung floor to ceiling. A video of this piece is below.
It made my day. It was so fun. It was so enjoyable. It just made me happy.
Oh, foxes. They are having so much fun. there was ONE red fox that freaked me out.
You have to click to enlarge this photo to get what I'm saying, but they worked really well next to each other. Both were so classically awful to enjoy. The chairs in the fox installation, and a designer chair display had a kid mumbling "All these chairs and I can't sit in any of them...".
Look at these colors with this imagery. Another one was of firefighters putting out corn.
The older building had your typical stuff. Really nice American Indian collection, obviously because of the area. By the way, I went to the Denver contemporary art museum today as well, and it sucked. If you ever go, make sure to look at the website and see if the pictures of whats being exhibited look even remotely interesting.
This was somehow from the plains, even though there were macaw feathers. Amazonian art looks amazingly similar to this.
Of course on my way back I stopped by the contemporary works.
Kids had an easier time getting through this.
I finished my night by going to Vertigo gallery, I had pictures of the closed gallery earlier, and spoke to the owner for nearly 2 hours about the art world, graduate schools, the painting professor in the show, and unmonumental works being made today. It was great to speak to her with a critical and naive angle. I am going to spend Thankgiving driving through the mountains. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, be thankful for what you have before it is gone. I have been uploading today at a 24hr Burger King and I have met more than a few "houseless, because home is where the heart is" friends here like me. I have a lot to love, and so do you all.
