Finishing up

I had a great time painting at the Denver Art Museum the last two weekends - and I also was able to nearly finish a large painting... win win!

Last day at DAM

Today is the last day to catch me workin at the Denver Art Museum studio. I'll be there from noon until about 3 or 4.

Progress on new painting - at the Denver Art Museum

The next two weekends (October 20, 21 and October 27, 28) I will be painting in the painting studio at the Denver Art Museum. You can see me work on a large new painting from noon until 3 pm each of those days. I would be happy to answer any questions about my work or technique - hope to see you there! Here's the current progress on the work I will be bringing to the museum:

New Clyfford Still Museum

This late 1970s work by Clyfford Still was my favorite at the now open Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. The museum is a great addition to the arts here in Denver.

Painting of the Day

Wounded Lion by Xu Beihong

The week(end)

I stopped by the new Native American galleries at the Denver Art Museum on Friday - fantastic updates/exhibitions including the above print by Edward Curtis.

Saw three live music shows this week - the best by far was a mesmerizing, intense set by Wovenhand. Photo from the show (above) by Peter Hyde.

Spent Sunday afternoon at the Tarryall Reservoir amongst rock formations and ice.

Exposure

Yesterday I went to the Denver Art Museum and took a second look at the newly displayed photography show called "Exposure". It's a really worthwhile show covering a wide variety of subjects, time periods, and processes. Greg Cradick from Denver's Working With Artists recently wrote a long review on his Eye on Photography blog - read it here. My personal favorite in the show is Petah Coyne's Untitled 735:

You can see more highlights from the show here.

Brief posts

by Allen Tupper True

Sorry for all the brief posts lately. We're in the middle of a move - painting walls, re-organizing, etc.

Bill Amundson's Christoph Heinrich portrait

My good friend Bill Amundson did the above portrait of Christoph Heinrich for this Sunday's Denver Post. Read the accompanying article here.

Enrique Martinez Celaya

Enrique Martinez Celaya, The Immigrant, 2005, Bronze, 93 x 24 x 17 inches

The painting below and above bronze work can be seen in the Denver Art Museum's modern and contemporary art collection.

Enrique Martinez Celaya, Distance. 2002, 100 x 78 inches, Oil and tar on canvas

The rest of his work is also quite good and worth a look (thanks for the tip Alan):

Enrique Martinez Celaya, Invierno (Winter), 2007, 116 x 150 inches, Oil and wax on canvas

Enrique Martinez Celaya, The Ice, 2008, 46 x 50 inches, oil and wax on canvas

Enrique Martinez Celaya, The Orchard, 2009, 78 x 100 inches, Oil and wax on canvas

A few photos from Embrace!

George by Katharina Grosse

R.A.W. by Nicola López

39˚ 44′ 11″ N x 104˚ 59′ 21″ W by Timothy Weaver + eMAD

Last to Know by Matthew Brannon

Tobias Rehberger

Embrace! Opening Tomorrow Night!

After months of installation - the Denver Art Museum will unveil Embrace! this Saturday night. The show is made up of site-specific works by 17 different artists. I've posted about some of the progress and artists in the past - and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all comes together. Some of the artists like Denver-based Rick Dula have been there for weeks (probably months) working on huge murals, while others have installed works seemingly overnight. The museum will be putting out a two-volume publication about the exhibition and the history of installation art. This will be a good resource for those of you not able to see the works in person, but as with most art - it is much better experienced in person.

The Denver Art Museum has shown numerous exceptional shows since we have moved here (Radar and Daniel Richter were two of my favorites). While I don't exactly know what to expect tomorrow, one thing is for sure - this will be a exhibition that you won't see anywhere else. I think this show is a great way to make use of some of the really unconventional spaces in the Hamilton Building.

There will be never-before-seen works from: El Anatsui (Nigeria/Ghana), Kristin Baker (U.S.), Matthew Brannon (U.S.), Rick Dula (U.S., Denver), Katharina Grosse - pictured above -(Germany), Christian Hahn (Germany), Nicola López (U.S.), John McEnroe (U.S., Denver), Rupprecht Matthies (Germany), Tobias Rehberger (Germany), Charles Sandison (Finland/U.K.), Dasha Shishkin (U.S./Russia), Shinique Smith (U.S.), Jessica Stockholder (U.S.), Timothy Weaver + eMAD (U.S., Denver), Lawrence Weiner (U.S.) and Zhong Biao (China).

Embrace!-ing

I'm looking forward to the upcoming site-specific installation exhibition at the Denver Art Museum called Embrace! You can read about the show here (pdf). I took these photos on Tuesday - showing progress being made by artist Nicola Lopez.

Three from the Western Exhibit at the Denver Art Museum

"The Open Range"

"War Bridle" by Frederic Remington

"Stampede"

If you live in Denver and you still haven't checked out the recently reopened 7th floor of the Denver Art Museum you're missing out. It is dedicated to Western art - a genre I've really begun to appreciate since moving West. I shot photos of these three pieces on my visit Tuesday.

While I don't always relate to the subject matter in a lot of Western painting, many of the artists are exceptional painters - especially in their ability to capture different atmospheric and lighting conditions. Take these three for instance;

• "The Open Range" displays the clear, often blinding sun that is typical of the West. If you look carefully you'll notice that there are no real dark color values- even the shadows on the ground are bleached by the sun.
  
• Remington's pieces also portrays a high-noon sun gleaming against the backs of the two white shirted cowboys.
• The "Stampede" on the other hand carefully composes the work with more detail in the foreground and soft, looser brush-strokes in the background - adding to the action and the depth of the image. It is almost entirely monochrome and his handling of subtle value variations is amazing.

Psychedelic Experiences

photo of the installation at the DAM from flickr user flowercat

I saw the Psychedelic Experience at the Denver Art Museum again yesterday. It's a unique show with a lot of great designs - there are so many in fact, they can blur together a little. There's been a recent semi-psychedelic surge in indie rock lately, and a lot of the art is reflecting it:

Deerhunter's newest ep cover borrows a lot form the psychedelic poster aesthetic, as do these other"Gig" posters:Animal Collective poster from Squad19 - available here.posters by BNML

You can get this Handsome Furs poster from SuperKonductor for $25 - 19x25 Silkscreen Print. US shipping cost of $5 incl. Email jen[at]superkonductor.com to order.

A new favorite at the Denver Art Museum

Frederic Remington, The War Bridle, 1909

This is one of my new favorites in the recently-opened 7th floor at the Denver Art Museum. The painting captures a brilliant noon-day light so well you almost squint. It's much more radiant than this digital image, that's for sure. I found this scan and its source photo at the War Bridle Project (of course).

Katharina Grosse

In a lecture by Christoph Heinrich (the contemporary art curator at the Denver Art Museum) on Tuesday he said that Katharina Grosse will be coming to Denver to do a huge installation/painting in the Hamilton building at the DAM as part of the group show called "Embrace". I'm really looking forward to this show - I've been hearing about it for some time now.

Lecture Tonight - Jonas Burgert

photo from thisweekindenver

Lecture starts at 7:00 pm in the Sharp Auditorium at the Denver Art Museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building. Doors open at 6:00 pm.

Individual lectures: $8 students, $12 DAMC members & artists, $15 DAM members, $18 non-members.

Daniel Richter at the Denver Art Museum

photo by Miguel Frutos

Last Thursday I had the privilege to hear Daniel Richter speak at the Denver Art Museum, and this week I saw his exhibition twice. I'm sure I'll see it again before it closes - if you are in the Denver area - do not miss this show. Richter was a very entertaining and inspiring speaker. When describing one of his paintings he said that it was "Me, looking out of my coffin, while being buried alive, being watched by me (with a clown face)...yeah.........suck on that." I think that gives you a little insight into his personality. He was very light-hearted and humourous - not at all what I expected given his imagery and subject matter.
In regard to this recent painting (above) Richter said, "I really thought it through - and I think there's nothing missing." He's right - what more could this painting need? It has art historical references (the Gerhard Richter-esque grid), a Batman figure made out of triangles, a skeleton sexually assulting or strangling Batman, a bird, a male sexual organ in a hourglass... there's really nothing missing.

Richter didn't begin painting in earnest until he was my age (28) and here he is thirteen years later with major museum exhibitions. Although that is quite a feat and pretty intimidating, I think it's inspiring to think that he was starting from scratch at my age and I've been painting for several years. So what I'm saying is - check back on this blog thirteen years from now and look for my first international museum survey. Ha ha. No harm in thinking big.

Trevor Appleson

Trevor Appleson: Los Loss
images from Hales Gallery

Death at sunset (pig)
2007
C-type print
126 x 158cm
Edition of 3 + 1AP
Crack (eggs)
2007
C-type print
106 x 84cm,
Edition of 3 + 1AP
Fallen in the morning
2007
C-type print
126 x 158 cm
Edition of 3 +1AP

In last weeks Westword, Mark Dragotta wrote, "What is it about Trevor Appleson's new exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver that reminds me of Cormac McCarthy's prose? Is it the intense quiet, the obsessive detail or the undercurrent of violence? Honestly, it's probably a little bit of each. Edging out all background distraction with a large black screen, the images highlight the still-life poverty, dirt and death in his otherwise commonplace subjects."

I couldn't have said it better, comparing these images to Cormac McCarthy's writing seems very appropriate. Looks like I'll need to get over to the Denver MCA to see this.