Most art museums regularly trumpet their latest acquisitions in press releases, newsletters and any other suitable vehicles.
Why not? Collecting is fundamental to the mission of a museum, and, given the friendly rivalry that exists between institutions, curators naturally take pride in their latest finds.
But for reasons that remain unclear, the Denver Art Museum in recent years has not put much emphasis on publicizing its acquisitions, aside from the unavoidable announcements of large-scale gifts.
Generally, the focus on new works has been hit and miss, with some departments, such as modern and contemporary, sometimes getting more attention than others simply because of the familiarity of the works and artists in question.
This is too bad, because the museum is regularly acquiring significant works of art, and the public is simply unaware of them, unless a new piece goes on view and someone happens to come across it during a visit to one of the permanent-collection galleries.
It would be great to see the museum make a point of systematically announcing those acquisitions of a certain minimum level of importance, making sure all departments are given equal treatment.
Even better would be the establishment of an acquisitions gallery, a small room somewhere in the museum’s much- expanded exhibition spaces where the public could always count on seeing something new.
In this gallery, the museum could showcase a recent addition in a compact, focused show that would explain the art-historical importance of the object and provide context, which is especially important in realms such as pre-Columbian art that are less familiar to most visitors.
These exhibitions could take any number of forms. It is possible to envision the museum showing, say, a new painting along with four or five related paintings from its holdings or on loan.
The Frick Collection in New York City excels at such tiny presentations.
In 1985-86, it assembled a fondly remembered exhibition around its celebrated Ingres masterpiece, “Comtesse d’Haussonville” (1845), in which it displayed jewelry and decorative objects similar to those depicted in the painting.
This acquisitions room and its changing offerings would add another component to the museum’s mix of changing exhibitions and give visitors a further way to glimpse the full scope of the museum’s wide-ranging holdings.
But perhaps most important, such a space would provide tangible evidence that the museum is regularly making substantial acquisitions and give visitors a better sense of the quality of Denver’s sometimes under-appreciated collection.
Graphic design curator
Darrin Alfred recently began his duties as the Denver Art Museum’s AIGA assistant curator of graphic design, a newly created position within the department of architecture, design and graphics.
Alfred, formerly on staff at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, will oversee the museum’s existing graphic-design collection, as well as its newly acquired AIGA Design Archives.
The American Institute of Graphic Arts, a professional design association, recently selected Denver as the home for its archives, which contains about 8,000 objects from 1980 to present. It also agreed to fund this new curatorial position for three years.
The Pittsburgh native earned his master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1998 and began his career as a landscape designer.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost
