| New Works at the DAM |
| Posted: April 09, 2008 | |||
 Untitled Manuel Neri sculpture stands in front of the previous site of Eric Fischl's "Pretty Ladies" I stopped by the Denver Art Museum last week and took in some noticeable changes on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Hamilton building. Gone are 2 of my favorite pieces from the 3rd floor (Larry Poons and Sam Gilliam) however the Poons wall has been replaced by two outstanding works by Richard Patterson, 1997 "If" and 1998 "Minotaur with Brushstrokes" and the Sam Gilliam spot is now home to David Schnell's 2005 "View," a modern take on op-art with an impressionistic twist. The Patterson works are opposite the relocated Eric Fischl 1986 "Pretty Ladies" and it must have been a task moving that piece as it was mounted with an intricate rig on one of Libeskind's crooked walls on the 4th floor prior to its new 3rd floor location. Quite honestly I'd rather they put the piece back into storage as it's not one of my favorites with it's bleak, mundane portrayal of a woman lying on a bed watching TV. The old spot is looking rather bleak as well, with a large empty wall serving as backdrop to an untitled Manuel Neri sculpture (pictured above.) I guess the Fischl rig isn't portable to other works and another expensive apparatus needs to be constructed to support the simple task of hanging a piece on a slanted wall. The more I travel and see "conventional" galleries with their square rooms and clean straight walls, the less I enjoy seeing art in the Hamilton building's arcane spaces. - KLH
From top left to bottom right: Larry Poons, Manual Neri sculpture, Richard Patterson 1998 "Minotaur with Brushstrokes", Sam Gilliam, David Schnell 2005 "View" photos by Ken Hamel/DenverArts.org
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