One of the best things about galleries devoted to a single artist — Denver’s new Clyfford Still Museum for one — is that they encourage you to go deep.
A visit to the Denver Art Museum, with its thousands of objects, is like attending a great cocktail party with lots of interesting chit-chat. But a trip to the Still Museum is more akin to spending a weekend in the country with a friend. You get to know him and, in this case, you get a chance to better understand abstract art.
Starting next week, the Still Museum is offering a clever — and certainly ambitious — way to make the most of that opportunity with its “One Painting at a Time” series.
From time to time, museum director Dean Sobel will present 30-minute talks on one carefully chosen selection from the collection. Visitors can pull up a bench and hear what the painting is about.
The first three talks start at 2:30 p.m. March 2, with an early figural work, Still’s PH-343, below, from 1937. The action jumps to 1942’s PH-313 at 6:30 p.m. April 13 and closes with the painting known popularly as “Big Blue,” from the height of his expressionist period, at 2:30 p.m. May 4.
Will the museum go all the way? There are 825 paintings in the collection? That would be 400-plus hours of talks.
Sobel says they’ll start with three and see how it goes. Here’s hoping. — Ray Mark Rinaldi
