The Final Friday Of September

I attended the Final Friday event at the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) last evening, and  was happy to see that the museum has some new exhibitions for the fall, including Stampede: Animals in Art, which features a wide variety of art from the museum's permanent collection, including the quirky photograph featured on the left.  It is a fun exhibit to see, but there was a negative aspect to the evening, too - the Ponti Building (the North Building) is scheduled to close for remodeling for two years starting this November, and things are already being removed.  I knew there was going to be a major remodeling and expansion of the north end of the complex, but didn't think it was going to happen this fast. As a result, there are no longer hors d'oeuvres served on Final Fridays.  Palettes, the restaurant on the first floor of the Ponti Building, is now empty, and I assume this is where the treats have been coming from.

The North Building, by the way, is where the more traditional art is displayed, while the Hamilton Building is where the modern collection is kept. And the biggest donors to the Denver Art Museum's modern art collection are Vicki and Kent Logan, who are featured in the Stampede exhibit in the painting featured on the right.  And I must say that a lot of the art the Logans donate is truly weird.  And I mean truly, truly weird. Perhaps this is because they lived in San Francisco for a while, or maybe it is because they now live in Vail, and the altitude has affected their brains.  Of course, that is just my opinion, and the modern art curator for the museum and many, many others think the art is great. After all, I am just a simple kid - a 64 year old kid, but a kid at heart - from the Brainerd neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, where we like to be able to understand our art, and preferably be able to plug it in.  And by the way, if you want to learn more about the Logans, check out http://www.denverpost.com/2006/10/05/dams-best-friends/.

To illustrate my point, the photograph on the left shows Frankie, the husband of Heidi, one of my former University of Denver co-workers, posing next to one of the Logan's gifts, titled Made In China.  I want to emphasize that I actually like a lot of modern art, but some of it is just too strange, and you have to wonder about the huge amounts of money paid these pieces.  I can just imagine the conversation the Logans had the day one of them brought this piece home.  "You bought a what?  Where will will we put it?  And why?"  "The patio, of course!" "No way in hell.  Let's donate it to the Denver Art Museum.  They'll take anything.  Even this"  This makes me want to take art lessons after I retire, and then drive up to Vail  and show up on the Logan's front doorstep, artwork in hand.