Last May we went to Colorado on holiday but were pitifully poor about spending any time in Denver despite staying nearby. So a couple of days before the end of our holiday we set off to blitz the major attractions in one day before we ran out of time. After visiting the Colorado State Capitol building, we headed off for some lunch and then to the Denver Art Museum nearby. My friend Kris who we were staying with had shown me lots of photos of the museum but all taken from the outside - he was clearly more interested in the architecture than in the art inside. So I knew to expect some pretty funky architecture but nothing about the art collection.
If you live in the UK where most of the major state museums and art galleries have free entry, having to pay a hefty entrance fee is a bit of a shock to the system. I've been to some of the galleries in New York so I knew to expect to pay a high price, but even so we were a bit taken aback that the tickets were $13 per person. Thankfully we were there when the exchange rate was a massive $1.98 to the pound so it was less painful than it would be today. If we'd wanted to see the 'special exhibition' there would have been an additional fee on top.
We entered through the new building - I think it's called the Hamilton building. It's a stunning modern building with so many angles that it's hard to take in what you are looking at. In places it resembles a Stealth Bomber, in others a sharp blade. Take a look at the photos and you'll see what I mean. It's quite extraordinary from the outside but once you get inside, there's not too much evidence of the bizarre structure around you.
We
kicked off our visit in the Modern and Contemporary Art section and were instantly stunned to find some works by really famous British artists included in this collection. My personal favourites were a floating man by Anthony Gormley and a giant blue wall-mounted bowl by Anish Kapoor. There was even a jokey Damien Hirst giant ashtray to giggle over though looking back I can't help but think it's a bit less stylish after something very similar was used in last year's Big Brother. We also found several brightly coloured 'bar code' sculptures that were very interesting. The slightly less modern part of the modern and contemporary collection included lots of Andy Warhols.
We were a bit irritated by all the 'Pah! Call that art!' comments from some of the visitors in this section but that's not unusual - they probably found some nice 'easy' paintings later on that didn't challenge them quite so much.
Also in the Hamilton building is a very interesting collection of 'Oceanic art' - pieces from the South Pacific including brightly coloured sculptures, fabric made from tree bark and very detailed carvings.
Leaving the new building, we crossed a bridge over the road below towards the North Building and spotted our first Georgia O'Keefe paintings. My sister has always been a massive O'Keefe fan so we snapped a few photos to take back and show her. My favourite was a painting of a cow's head with its tongue extended - a very different image from O'Keefe's normal erotic flower paintings. I used to work for two guys based in the US office of the company I worked for. Between their two offices was a large framed poster of a Georgia O'Keefe painting which they'd clearly never really stopped to look at - it didn't take a lot of imagination to recognise it looked like a lady's (how shall I put this?) reproductive bits.
We took a break in the coffee shop where it was possible to get out on the roof and examine some big outdoor sculptures and take photos of the new building. With coffee and muffins to give us more energy, we took the lifts up to the top floor and worked our way downwards.
The top floor had a collection of European and North American paintings which covered the period from the 19th century up to 1945. I didn't find this collection particularly memorable but the floor also contained an exhibition of textiles which included some fascinated quilts and richly decorated clothing.
For the North Building, the fifth floor was my favourite section with its Asian art collection. This contained a very wide variety of sacred and secular exhibits from the India sub-continent, China, Japan, Korea and south east and south west Asia. I've seen many pieces like these in their home settings but it was really interesting to see them all brought together in a modern gallery so far from home. All the pieces were given ample space and good descriptions to help you understand what you were looking at.
The fourth floor contains one of the museum's most important collections - the pre-Columbian and Spanish colonial art collections. Apparently this is one of the finest collections in the world but it's not an era or a geography that I know anything about and the sheer volume of exhibits was exhausting. This struck me as more of a research collection and less a collection that's intended to be viewed and enjoyed. With its fascinating history of native tribes, Colorado's leading art museum could have been predicted to have a fantastic collection of American Indian art and we weren't disappointed. Spread over floors 2 and 3 there were plenty of fascinating, educational and decorative items, some intended as art, and others just showing the craftsmanship of every day items. With bead work, pottery, paintings, sculpture and even contemporary American Indian artists, there was a real treasure trove of items that we would struggle to have seen anywhere in Europe.
We finally ended our visit with a temporary exhibit on the ground floor showing hand made quilts by a particular group of quilters. I have to be honest, their charms went right over my head. I had no idea why they were supposed to be so precious or so significant as most just seemed to be badly misshapen and quite ugly. Never mind, you can't love everything in any museum.
The museum has clearly given a lot of thought to its younger visitors and there are lots of places around the museum where there are special events and challenges for the kids to take part in. There are also 'library' areas with reference texts where people who want to know more can stop and use the books.
We also enjoyed the sculptures in the museum grounds, some of which showed a real sense of humour. Examples included a giant dustpan and brush outside the Hamilton building and a cowboy and Indian shootout on the roof by the cafeteria.
Despite my initial reservations about the cost, I was really impressed by the Denver Art Museum. There's a world-class collection of art and artefacts that really made me wonder that a state museum could pull off exhibits of a class and variety that many national galleries would struggle to match. It's not even as if Denver is one of the wealthiest or artiest of the states and yet the Denver Art Museum can truly hold its head up high as a museum of real quality and diversity. If we hadn't needed to leave enough time for one more attraction that day, I think we'd have stayed for a couple more hours to have a really good look.
Pictures of Denver Art Museum, Colorado
Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
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Advantages: It's free and it's pretty interesting as big state buildings go Disadvantages: You can't ensure you don't get any boring nutters in your tour group
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