It only makes sense that most of the Denver Art Museum’s holdings created in the past several decades are displayed on the two floors of the Hamilton Building devoted to the institution’s modern and contemporary department.
But notable exceptions can be found elsewhere — sometimes in unexpected places like the museum’s too-often overlooked textile gallery on the seventh floor of its original building.
Among her ongoing acquisitions for the museum’s wide-ranging textile collection, curator Alice Zrebiec has made a point of adding contemporary works, including some with a surprising edginess to them.
Sixteen such pieces from 1974 to 2010 are on view through April 15 in the exhibition “Sleight of Hand,” a reference to both the surprising methods used to make some of the pieces, as well as the way that many of the these tricky pieces can be mistaken for other media.
It is one of two compact offerings from the permanent collection that have opened recently at the museum with little fanfare. The other is “Focus: Robert Motherwell From the Collection,” which is running through May 27.
Mention the phrase “contemporary textiles,” and most people probably conjure images of quilts and tapestries — works that are folksy, pretty and doggedly traditional. But the offerings in “Sleight of Hand” quickly shatter any such conventional stereotypes.
Sure, there is a quilt: Jane Mathews’ 47 1/2-by-59-inch “DAM Crazy” (2006). But it was made not with sections of fabric but with glossy colorful cut-outs from the museum’s bimonthly newsletter, “On & Off the Wall.”
There are also a few tapestries, and they, too, defy convention, like Gugger Petter’s “Dog Barking at Two Women” (2008), a whimsical dog’s-eye view of standing figures on a sidewalk. The wonderfully textured piece is crafted with woven hemp and newspaper with paint.
While all the represented artists are solidly rooted in the sometimes insular textile world, several, including Tracy Krumm and Olga de Amaral, have transcended it and gained recognition on the broader art scene.
And, indeed, Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz is something of a superstar, with works in museums around the world. On view here is “Standing Figure” (1981), resin and sand on burlap, a quintessential 65-inch-tall example of her haunting, anonymous figures.
The show is worth seeing for this work alone. Acquired with proceeds from the museum’s 1985 Collectors’ Choice benefit, it is not shown as often as it deserves to be.
As a nod to the Clyfford Still Museum, which just opened to the west, the art museum is presenting a partial look at its substantial holdings by Robert Motherwell. He ranked along with Still, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko as one of the most influential of the 1940s and ’50s abstract-expressionists.
In 1994, the museum purchased 20 works by Motherwell from the Dedalus Foundation, which administers the artist’s estate. In all, it owns 33 pieces by the artist, spanning his career from 1944 through his death in 1990. (All are documented in a new 76-page book published by the museum in conjunction with this exhibition.)
Because the museum’s holdings are generally weak in modern art, especially in the realm of abstract-expressionism, this group of works has been a big boost, and its importance has only grown with the debut of the nearby Still Museum.
Three major Motherwell paintings were shown in 2002 as part of “Retrospectacle,” a milestone exhibition celebrating 25 years of collecting by Dianne Vanderlip, then curator of modern and contemporary art.
Among the pieces shown then and featured here is “Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 172 (with Blood)” (1989-90). The imposing, black-dominated painting is noteworthy as the last in Motherwell’s “Elegy” series, which spans his long career and stands as one of the most important single bodies of work in American art history.
Also represented among the 24 featured selections are seven ink-blot drawings from Motherwell’s “Lyric Suite,” which he began in 1965, painting 10 to 50 a day on 1,000 sheets of Japanese rice paper, as well as several of his masterful collages, including the maplike “Sand and Sea” (1973).
The only knock against this show is its disjointed installation. It is spread across a couple of irregularly shaped modern and contemporary galleries on the third floor of the Hamilton Bulding and comes off a bit scattered and incoherent.
Overall, though, these two shows prove once again that good things do often come in small packages.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“SLEIGHT OF HAND” AND “FOCUS: ROBERT MOTHERWELL FROM THE COLLECTION.” “Sleight of Hand,” on view through April 15 in the textile gallery on the seventh floor of the museum’s original building, features 16 convention-busting contemporary works. The Motherwell show, which will remain on view through May 27 on the third floor of the Hamilton Building, contains 24 paintings, drawings and collages from the museum’s permanent collection. Free with regular museum admission. 720-865-5000 or
