The DAM Has Reopened...

I made a reservation and visited the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) this past Wednesday afternoon for the first time in almost 5 months. The museum recently reopened after being closed due to the coronavirus. Current highlights include Norman Rockwell - Imagining Freedom, and Natural Forces - Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington. Norman Rockwell, of course, became famous for his Saturday Evening Post Magazine Covers. Much of the exhibit features Rockwell's work at the magazine during World War II, and includes a lot of WWII posters by other artists, too.  The photograph on the left shows a large image of Franklin Roosevelt promoting his Four Freedoms concept, which was designed to convince Americans to support the war effort, and for which Rockwell and other artists created works to promote it. It is well worth visiting.

I liked the Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington exhibit, too, and found it very informative. Like Norman Rockwell, they both started as magazine illustrators, and became very successful artists. Winslow Homer (seen on the right in the photo on the right) covered the Civil War as a young illustrator, and Remington (seen on the left) covered the Indian Wars and the Spanish-American War.  Both artists were at the height of their careers when they passed away in 1910 and 1909 respectively.

The museum's new welcome center and the renovation of the North Building (seen in the photo on the left) have been completed, but due to the coronavirus, the grand reopening has been delayed.  It seems it takes quite a while to move all the artwork that has been in storage for two years back into place.  And not to complain, but several current exhibits have been up for what seems like years now. And yet, The Light Show, an exhibit taking up two floors of the Hamilton Building, will remain open until March of next year, and Treasures of British Art will be in place until December - not due to popular demand, of course, but because the staff has no time to replace them. Most important of all, I was hoping that with the opening of the welcome center, with it's new restaurant and quick service cafe, that the free buffet table on Untitled Final Fridays would reappear. However, thanks to the coronavirus, I think you can kiss that possibility goodbye. Art without a free buffet - that is a definite non-starter for me.