From left: Eboshi kabuto (eboshi-shaped helmet) and menpo (half mask), late 16th century; Kaen kabuto (flame helmet), 1630; Bamen (horse mask), 19th century; Somen (full-face mask) 1710. (Photos provided by the Denver Art Museum)
Re: If you like Darth Vader, you might love Denver Art Museum’s “Samurai”, March 27 Life & Culture story.
Ray Mark Rinaldi denounces the current Samurai exhibit at the Denver Art Museum as a brutish celebration of various implements of death and oppression. He appears truly befuddled as to why such artifacts of history could be in a designated museum of art — entirely disregarding the union of art history: a recognition of art s unique ability to capture, interpret and reflect human history in a way that stale facts and dates cannot.
Whether in an artistic or historic context, the emotion with which one views these pieces of art and armor is not an uneducated fascination. It is a genuine human appreciation of an object created by another human, using their human eyes and human hands, guided by their human creativity and human will. It is the same human appreciation with which one regards a Raphael or a Bosch — a simultaneously humbling and inspiring appreciation of the vast expanse and truth of human capability and skill.
It is incorrect, even dishonest, to divorce a work of art from its historical and practical contexts. Rinaldi s desire to segregate human art based on its degree of aesthetic purpose is equally incorrect and dishonest.
Samantha Fletcher, Elizabeth
This letter was published in the April 5 edition.
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