Sometimes, you just have to ask.
The Sandy Carson Gallery followed that simple axiom, and it has scored what by any measure is a coup – one that has undoubtedly sparked envy among other Denver art dealers.
The gallery is presenting a surprisingly ambitious exhibition of 83 sketches and drawings by Daniel Libeskind, who oversaw the angled, jutting design of the Denver Art Museum’s $110 million Hamilton Building.
When this offering was first announced, it seemed it would have made more sense to have timed the display with the Oct. 7 opening of the addition. In retrospect, however, it is clear that the exhibition would have just been lost in the hoopla.
By presenting it now, viewers have the opportunity to visit the completed building and then take the time to peruse the show, which includes 55 pieces devoted to the obviously complex conception of the Hamilton Building.
Although there is a sizable section devoted to the Jewish Museum in Berlin and several earlier drawings, the Hamilton-related selections, for obvious reasons, will hold the most interest for most local visitors.
These works do not disappoint, offering fascinating insights into Libeskind’s creative method and showing dozens of the possibly hundreds of versions of the structure before Libeskind settled on the final form.
In some of the drawings, the building has a kind of a stacked, bunched appearance. In others, it more directly mimics a ship than it does now. And still others show it with a flatter, blunter section cantilevering over West 13th Avenue.
Most are clearly working drawings, with images spread across the sheets with no worry as to how they might appear to anyone else. Indeed, some look like doodles – the architect’s almost unconscious scribbles as he ponders various ideas.
Enhancing the sense of being in the creative moment are a wall of drawings on everything from sheets from a hotel memo pad to a rumpled napkin to a Post-It note. Ideas were clearly bursting into Libeskind’s mind, and he was grabbing anything he could find to record them.
Most of the other Hamilton images are on drawing paper – some 6 1/2 by 9 inches ripped from a spiral sketchbook, others 9 1/2 by 12 inches. Some have a similar working quality, but others seem more finished and presentational.
Examples of the latter are a handsome charcoal side view of the building, in which the architect emphasizes how the shape of the background mountains are echoed in its profile. Another offers a view of a plaza formed by the addition on one side and Libeskind-designed condos on the other.
Rounding out the Hamilton selections are five color drawings probably created for publicity purposes. These artistic representations, loosely rendered in watercolor and marking pen, suggest what the project would ultimately look like.
What becomes apparent is that Libeskind is an excellent draftsman, a notion reinforced elsewhere in the exhibition by more polished works. Chief among these are four semi-abstract ink drawings created in 1985 for an exhibition and book, “Theatrum Mundi Through the Green Membranes of Space.”
Even more intricate are two constructivist compositions from 1981 – each 36 1/4 by 29 inches: “Collage Drawing 1” and “Collage Drawing 2.”
Libeskind’s artistic abilities should not come as surprise, because much of the attention he garnered early in his career derived from his drawings and collages. They have been shown often, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s 2002 two-dimensional exhibition, “Perfect Acts of Architecture.”
Sandy Carson had hoped to include some of Libeskind’s Denver drawings in an architectural exhibition she curated several years ago for a display space at a local law firm, but he was unable to participate.
She did not give up. When the gallery was planning this year’s schedule, she asked again, and, this time, Libeskind said yes.
The result is a must-see for architectural devotees and anyone fascinated with the unorthodox Hamilton Building and how it came to be.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“Daniel Libeskind: Inspiration, Process and Place”
ART AND ARCHITECTURAL EXHIBITION|Sketches and drawings by Denver Art Museum architect Daniel Libeskind|Sandy Carson Gallery, 760 Santa Fe Drive|FREE|10 a.m.-6 p.m., Tuesdays-Fridays, and noon-4 p.m., Saturdays; through Jan. 5; 303-573-8585 or sandycarsongallery.com.
