A Return To The DAM

Tuesday was a free day at the Denver Art Museum (the DAM), as seen on the left side of the photograph, and so my sister Susan and I headed downtown in the afternoon to check out what was on display. This was the first time I have visited the place since I let my membership lapse, and so I was interested in seeing what was new there. The answer - basically nothing. The emphasis at the DAM these days is on contemporary art, both with the permanent collections and current exhibitions. And many of the contemporary paintings look exactly the same, no matter how many times they rotate the artwork. As Susan, who years ago took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, looked at these paintings, she kept saying how much she regretted giving up art, since she could paint far better than what was on display and would probably have made a fortune if she stuck to it.

It was, after all, a weekday, and so not too many people were in the galleries. Years ago, my favorite time to visit the museum was on Final Fridays, which took place the last Friday evening of every month. There was a free buffet table, and if you wanted, you could purchase beer or wine. Plus, there were all kinds of tours and activities during the evening, including a comedy team that dressed like the two characters from the painting Self-Portrait with Swimming Coach Charlie Sava, and put on a show using the freight elevator as a stage. It was actually a lot of fun. There was also another comedy team who would guide you on a tour of the contemporary art exhibitions and give you their interpretation of the meaning of those works, which was hilarious. Eventually, the buffet table was eliminated when the North Building underwent restoration, and Final Fridays became a quarterly event called Untitled: Artist Takeover. The comedy teams were eliminated, and all the events seemed to revolve around serious social issues. No food, no drink, and no fun.

One of my favorite paintings at the DAM is Modigliani's Portrait de Femme, which for some reason has not been on display for years. I finally filled out request asking why and was told that it was out on loan for a special exhibition. That was several years ago, too, and still no Modigliani. For that matter, it has been years since I have seen Joan Brown's Self-Portrait with Swimming Coach Charlie Sava hanging in the gallery, either. Instead, they have videos such as Salt Transfer Cycle, featuring a naked man crawling across salt flats, getting covered in salt, and having elk licking it off. Yesterday they had Lorna Simpson's video titled Easy to Remember playing, which features 15 mouths humming that Rodgers and Hart tune in unison, which is supposed to be "a subtle comment on racial difference," and seen in the photograph on the left, with Susan taking it all in. To me, it is just stupid. But that's just me. After all, I am old.