Old masters and contemporary innovators.
Denver viewers will have an opportunity to experience both as two institutions – the Denver Art Museum and the up-and-coming Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver – open significant new chapters in their histories this fall.
After the much-publicized unveiling of the Hamilton Building last October and subsequent attendance that has fallen well short of projections, the Denver Art Museum is beginning perhaps its most ambitious exhibition schedule ever.
To rekindle interest and bolster its visitor numbers, it is dangling the name of perhaps the most famous and well-respected museum in the world – the Louvre.
In conjunction with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the DAM will present more than 125 paintings, sculptures and decorative objects from the extensive holdings of the French museum. The exhibition will open Oct. 6 and run through Jan. 6.
Titled “Artisans and Kings: Selected Treasures from the Louvre,” it will focus on works that were originally the possessions of France’s procession of monarchs and later formed the core of the Louvre’s collection after the French Revolution. (More information: 720-865-5000 or )
After a week of private previews and other anticipatory events, MCA/ Denver will take its turn and inaugurate a 27,000-square-foot building on Oct. 28 with a free public opening running from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The glass-walled structure, which will encompass five exhibition galleries and a rooftop pavilion among its features, was designed by David Adjaye, a London architect whose international profile is skyrocketing.
To mark the debut, the museum chose seven emerging and established artists from around the world to take part in “Star Power: Museum as Body Electric,” an exhibition exploring the relationship of the body and architecture. (303-298-7554 of )
If those events will dominate the fall scene, another international exhibition will not be far behind. As part of EcoArts, an ambitious multidisciplinary series of events focused on climate change, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art is presenting “Weather Report: Art and Climate Change.”
The show, which will be on display Sept. 14 through Dec. 21, brings together more than 50 artists from around the United States, who will present works at both the institution and an array of indoor and outdoor sites around Boulder. (More information: 303-443-2122 or .)
Here’s a look at 10 other Colorado exhibitions deserving attention this fall:
“Portrait of a Place – Wyoming’s Red Desert, Photographs by Martin Stupich” Working with writer Annie Proulx and archaeologist Dudley Gardiner, Stupich has researched and documented Wyoming’s distinctive Red Desert.|Through Dec. 22, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, 307-766-6622 or .
“Substance: Diverse Practices From the Periphery” This exhibition features 30 international architects and designers who work across socioeconomic borders and cultural divides to directly affect the quality of life of everyday people worldwide. |Thursday-Nov. 9, Center for Visual Art, 303-294-5207 or .
“Quasi Symmetries” Clark Richert is arguably Colorado’s most significant living painter. His most recent works, which, as usual, engage elements of mathematics and science, will be featured in this solo exhibition.|Sept. 14-Nov. 3, Rule Gallery, 303-777-9473 or .
“Manifest: Colonial Tendencies of the West” Christopher Lynn, the ambitious new director of this academic space, offers a contemporary rethinking of colonialism in this provocative eight-artist exhibition.|Sept. 14-Nov. 17, Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, 719-262-3567 or .
“15th Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition” Posters by 87 designers in 31 countries will be featured in one of the world’s largest and most important biennials of its kind.|Sept. 14-Oct. 19, Hatton and Curfman Galleries, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 970-491-1989 or .
“Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde” This touring exhibition explores the five principal currents running through dissident art in the Soviet Union between World War II and the advent of glasnost.|Sept. 15-Nov. 17, University of Wyoming Art Museum
“Komar & Melamid’s American Dreams” This Russian-born artistic duo, which disbanded in 2003 after four decades of collaboration, completed this group of paintings from 1994 to 1999. The works spoof parallels between Russian and American founding fathers – George Washington and Vladimir Lenin.| Sept. 16-Nov. 11, Singer Gallery, Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, 303-316-6360 or .
“Muniz: Remastered” Few contemporary artists are better known than Vik Muniz, who reinterprets famous works of art using materials such as chocolate syrup, sequins and dirt, creating high-resolution photographs of the results.|Oct. 4-Jan. 20, Museo de las Américas, 303-571-4401 or .
“Tekcno Powwow” These two events – an evening that is part performance art and part powwow and a related exhibition – blow away stereotypes of American-Indian art, taking it into new, unexpected dimensions.|Oct. 6, Cossitt Gym, “Bently Spang: Cyberskins,” Oct. 12-Dec. 12, Coburn Gallery, Colorado College, Colorado Springs
“Color as Field: American Painting 1950-75,” This touring exhibition offers a comprehensive look at a key movement that emerged in American abstraction in the 1950s. Included will be works by Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski and Frank Stella.|Nov. 9-Feb. 3, Denver Art Museum
