For most of its history, the Denver Art Museum paid scant attention to Western art. But since the 2001 establishment of a curatorial department focused on the field, it has quickly become an emphasis of the institution.
The latest and most dramatic evidence came with Saturday’s opening of nine handsomely renovated galleries on the seventh floor of the museum’s original 1971 building — all devoted to historical Western art.
On view are 132 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and decorative objects, including examples by such famed artists as Thomas Hart Benton, Albert Bierstadt, Charles Deas, Thomas Eakins, Frederic Remington and Charles Russell.
Between these new galleries and existing space on the second floor of the Hamilton Building (the museum’s 2006 addition), about 16,300 square feet is now set aside for Western art, bringing the area closer in size to the museum’s larger and older departments.
More than doubling the space devoted to Western art made sense, director Lewis Sharp said, because of strong community interest, the department’s “aggressive, ambitious curators” and trustees and collectors willing to provide substantial financial support.
In 2007, the Institute of Western American Art, as the curatorial department is known, was named in honor of Tom Petrie, a longtime trustee and Western art collector who donated $5 million to endow it.
“There’s public interest, institutional commitment, and it just made sense,” Sharp said. “It’s a big collection now, and our community loves it.”
In addition to expanding space devoted to Western art, the recent renovation of the seventh floor also provided an opportunity to uncover 10 windows and a floor-to-ceiling glass wall looking out on a patio and outdoor stairwell to the building’s roof.
These changes, which follow similar ones that took place during a 1990s remodeling of the rest of the building, bring the seventh floor more in line with the intentions of Italian design architect Gio Ponti and his Denver collaborator, James Sudler.
“It really enhances the visitor experience,” Sharp said. “Yes, we lose a little wall space, but it creates such wonderful vistas out of the building and brings natural light into the galleries that we all opted to do it, and we’re thrilled the way it looks.”
With the nine new galleries, a total of 224 Western objects are on view. They are divided roughly between historical pieces, most created before 1950, on the seventh floor and modern and contemporary selections in the Hamilton Building.
“These more traditional spaces fit the historic works so well, so it allows us to the tell the early story of the West in a very nice setting,” said Thomas B. Smith, associate curator of Western art.
He oversaw the selection and configuration of the works in the new galleries along with Peter Hassrick, director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, who is retiring in April.
The selections are arranged in loosely chronological order, with each of the galleries devoted to a theme, such as “Picturing the American Indian” or “Creating the West’s First Heroes.”
Those themes, in turn, fit under the umbrella title, “Creating the West in America,” which refers to the integral role the West has played in the growth and development of the United States.
The museum’s Western collection was significantly boosted by the 2001 donation of a major group of Western and American Indian works by Bill and Dorothy Harmsen, the Denver founders of the Jolly Rancher Candy Co.
Thirty-nine pieces from that holding are on view on the seventh floor, including such paintings as George Catlin’s “The Cutting Scene, Mandan O-kee-pa Ceremony” (1832), William Leigh’s “Greased Lightning” (1946), Theodore Van Soelen’s “The Road to Santa Fe” (1948) and N.C. Wyeth’s “Gunfight” (circa 1916).
“Near Greeley, Colorado,” an 1882 landscape by John Casilear, a Hudson River School painter with works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and elsewhere, has been placed on view for the first time after a recent conservation.
Another 30 or so works are on view on long-term loans from public and private collections. These include Remington’s “The War Bridle” (1909) and “Pioneer Mother,” a 1927 bronze by Alexander Procter from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
These works fill in gaps in the museum’s collection and bolster the chronicle of Western art it is trying to tell. At the same time, it allows the museum to reach out to local and national collectors, many of whom were eager to have their works on view.
By giving this new installation a title, organizing a publicity campaign around it and offering private previews last week, the museum is treating it like a temporary exhibition. And that makes sense.
Although the public has seen many of these works before, this attractive, new context, the inclusion of never-before-seen loans and the high quality overall make for a fresh, inviting viewing experience.
7th-floor gallery remains closed
A 1,000-square-foot center gallery on the seventh floor of the Denver Art Museum’s original building remains closed. It has been set aside for the museum’s recently established department of photography. Director Lewis Sharp said no timeline has been set for the remodeling of that space, but he hopes it can be undertaken in 12 to 18 months.
Kyle MacMillan
“Creating the West in Art”
Art. Denver Art Museum, West 13th Avenue between Broadway and Bannock Street. More than 130 Western American artworks have gone on view in nine newly opened permanent-collection galleries on the seventh floor of the museum’s original building. Ongoing. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Free with regular museum admission. 720-865-5000 or .
