The Final Friday of July

Yesterday was the final Friday of July, and as is my custom, I attended the Denver Art Museum's Untitled Final Fridays event, titled IN-SYNC (I know - I don't understand either).  This month the museum is celebrating it's new exhibit Rhythm & Roots, and so the theme at this month's Final Friday was dance.  I toured the main exhibit, and it was pretty good.  All of the paintings on display featured artists depicting individuals and groups in the act of dancing.

And as usual, there were various talks and tours, and other types of entertainment, too.  I stopped to watch the Buntport Theater's presentation of "Joan and Charlie," which is based on the famous painting of the same name that is part of the museum's collection. They perform in the freight elevator, and were as funny as usual, but I have not seen that actual painting in years. Was it defaced by some protester, stolen by a true crazy, or what?  I would recommend concerned parties call the museum and demand an answer immediately.

And recently the museum has added tours by the Denver Center for the Performing Art's improv group "Cult Following."  I followed them around the contemporary arts gallery and found them very amusing.  I took the photograph of them on the left discussing what they claim was a dental X-Ray gone bad, and turned into modern art.  They also discussed a contemporary painting of a highway where they said the artist had blue paint left over from painting the kitchen, some green paint, some black paint left over from his daughter's goth period, and a large piece of plywood, and put together a  huge painting of a highway.  They said he sold it for big bucks, and now, for better or worse,  it is ours.  I'm sure the contemporary arts curator just loves that story.

And finally, as I mentioned before, I toured the museum's new Rhythm & Roots exhibit, and really enjoyed it.  I checked at the entrance to see if photography was allowed, and there was only a "no flash" notice. Therefore, I took a photograph of the painting on the right, which I found very striking. And of course, one of the guards immediately walked up and told me that this was the one painting in the entire exhibit that was not allowed to be photographed.  I ask you - what are the odds of that?  Really now?  In any case, I had already snapped the photo, and so here it is, a little bit blurry and a little bit enhanced by me, but still a glimpse of a forbidden photo.  Enjoy.