Denver’s Astonishing New Art Museum
(photo: Ellen Goldstein)

Driving up Santa Fe Avenue on an unseasonable balmy Friday night, the streets teemed with people taking part in a monthly Denver tradition known as “First Friday, as galleries stay open for the evening crowd. This night, with the nearby town hall bathed in pink light for a breast cancer walk, the buzz had an extra fizz: the imminent opening of the Daniel Libeskind-designed Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum. Three years of anticipation, and much local curiosity as to what form the tangled collection of steel would eventually take, had reached its zenith with one last invitation-only gala to kick off its grand opening weekend. The next day, the DAM was inviting the whole city to the party, free, over the next 35 hours.

From the new Acoma Plaza on 13th Avenue, the titanium-clad building…which Time Magazine describes as “the most captivating building to appear in the U.S. in a while”…is an explosion of massive origami shapes that jut out at all angles, the largest of which extends over 13th Avenue like the prow of a huge landlocked ship. Outdoor decks, festooned with partiers, extend from several floors, and the matte-finish cladding and few windows result in vast expanses of softly burnished metal, lit in such a way as to accentuate its angularity. A striking see-through pedestrian bridge connects the new building to the existing museum north of 13th, an imposing building in its own right designed by Gio Ponti and completed in 1971. The Plaza and the bold Denver Central Library complement the dramatic site, which seems destined to anchor Denver’s burgeoning cultural downtown, with as distinctive a silhouette as any building in the world.

33,755 tickets were distributed at timed intervals, and the museum exhausted their supply about halfway into the 35-hour party. Ours are for Sunday morning, and are intriguingly titled “Hot DAM: Art At All Hours.” As we approach the entrance, we pass a giant whisk broom and dustpan (attracting kids and their camera-toting parents) while an equally large, whimsical spider appears to be guarding the door. Once inside, the airy first floor belies the imposing exterior, and the myriad of exterior angles continue, in structural components and a winding, four-story staircase affording dazzling, almost disorienting views of the space below. Concrete walls meet at odd angles, punctuated by 80 mysterious stainless-steel disks with elevator-style LED numbers that seemed to blink and change at random…a mesmerizing installation called “ENGI” by Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima, who enlisted the aid of 80 Denver citizens to set each LED’s speed. Climbing the staircase is akin to hiking up a canyon (indeed, it has been named the “Boettcher Canyon Walk”) and the view from the top affords a loopy M.C. Escher-like perspective.

Amid the grotto-like gallery spaces, the lack of traditional vertical walls makes for some unconventional displays, such as paintings hung on wires from the ceiling, or Jennifer Steinkamp’s trippy “Rock Formation Digital Video Projection” which cascaded down steeply angled walls. The Bonfils-Stanton Contemporary Gallery features works by Chuck Close, Alan Rath, Robert Arneson, Roy Lichtenstein, and many others. Sean Landers’ “Pater Naster”…a wall-sized canvas of random musings bathed in light from the narrow opening above, overlooks another stairwell featuring a Calder mobile. Tucked into another nook (it’s hard to refer to them as “corners”) is the vibrant Daniel Yohannes African Gallery. A walk down the stairwell leads to a grouping of Andy Warhol’s iconic Campbell soup prints, and to works by Picasso, Mondrian, Matisse, Modigliani and others. Particularly striking, and a little gross, is a 10-foot ceramic ashtray by Damian Hurst filled with cigarette butts and discarded packs. The Andeman Gallery of Oceanic Art displays intricate works from the South Pacific island of Vanatua. On the west side of the floor, a small sculpture deck affords fresh air and a different perspective of the exterior.

The second floor contains many of the most eye-catching displays, housed in temporary exhibits such as “RADAR: Selections from the Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan,” an eye-popping array of provocative and memorable pieces from the renowned Vail, Colorado collectors. The entrance is dominated by Michael Joo’s “Headless 2000”…an arrangement of 28 terracotta Tibetan monks, seated as if meditating, but without heads, as if they had been chopped off. Suspended above each with fine wire and magnets is a different, cartoonishly small doll’s head, ranging from tiny ceramic antiques to plastic icons such as Barbie’s boyfriend Ken and Alfred E. Neuman. Other highlights included a vivid, spellbinding trio of life-sized solid-color figures by Catherine Fritsch representing commerce (red, suited with a cloven hoof) medicine (a white skeleton in a lab coat) and religion (a black Franciscan robed monk) and the huge canvases of Neo Rauch, with their retro palette and early ‘60s clip art imagery. “Breaking the Mold: The Virginia Vogel Mattern Collection of Contemporary Native American Art” is a thought-provoking exhibit combining traditional materials with new esthetics, such as stunningly modern yet distinctly Native pottery. An interesting contrast is provided by the Dietler Museum of Western Art, with its expansive odes to cowboys and canyons.

A dramatic, glass-lined pedestrian walkway with views of the Rockies and the Denver skyline connects the Hamilton building to what is now known as the North Building. There, museum-goers can tour four floors of exhibits, and sample culinary art at the reinvented Palettes restaurant on the first floor. Chef Kevin Taylor’s selections range from a sirloin burger to smoked sweet corn soup with guacamole and barbecued shrimp. More casual dining is available at Mad Greens in the plaza, serving soups, salads and panini. Several small galleries and a convivial pub are within a couple of blocks, and across Acoma Plaza, Libeskind-designed condos advertised as “Gallery Inspired Residences” are offered for sale…a clear sign that Denver’s art culture is embracing downtown.

Libeskind, best known as the architect chosen to design New York’s World Trade Center Memorial, has made a dramatic statement in his acknowledgement of the progressive, pioneer spirit that Denver has always possessed, and the project represents a stirring testament to the support of the arts that its citizens provide. Denver’s skyline has steadily embraced a collection of distinctive buildings as its downtown continues a stunning renaissance from the doldrums of decades past. The new Hamilton Building, with its brave new way of experiencing art and space, places an emphatic exclamation point on Denver’s emergence as an international art center.