The Glory Of Venice At The DAM

I visited the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) Sunday afternoon and toured it's latest exhibit, "The Glory of Venice: Masterworks of the Renaissance,"  and I must say I really enjoyed it, too.  The Denver Art Museum does a great job with these special exhibits, which in this case featured  floor to ceiling photographs of Venice, soft, appropriately Italian background music, and of course well displayed artworks.  It made for a pleasant Sunday afternoon and a bit of an escape from a sunny but brisk and windy fall day.

The artwork consisted, as you might suspect, of Italian Renaissance masters, including Giovanni Bellini, Titian, and Giorgione.  I took the liberty of taking the figures from one of Titian's masterpieces and combining it with one of the exhibit's floor to ceiling photographs of a Venetian piazza - a much more agreeable composition, if I say so myself (see photo at right). Bellini, by the way, was - according to the museum placards - one of the "stylistic and technical innovators of the later 1400s."  His pupils included Titian, the older Giorgione, and - much later, of course - Andy Warhol.

There were several other special exhibits at the museum, too.  One, titled "What It Meant To Be Modern, 1910-1965" featured American works on paper by 5 artists (Charles Sheeler, John Marin, Charles Burchfield, Oscar Bluemner, and Stuart Davis).  All were colorful, interesting, and wonderful.  The other special exhibit was titled "Start Wars And The Power Of Costume."  As you can see from the photo on the left, museum patrons were lining up in droves to see this one. You had to pay extra to see it, and so for me it was a skip.  But I ask you - are Star Wars costumes really art?  Or just a way to earn enough revenue to pay for the stuff that really is.  But what do I know - I'm just a simple kid from the South Side of Chicago.  That's where I learned about the Bellini - Warhol connection, by the way.