Yesterday, my class and I visited the Denver Art Museum and the Clyfford Still Museum. While in Denver, we were able to freely explore both museums and enjoyed a nice lunch at a salad bar called Mad Greens. I had a lot of fun on the trip! What I found most interesting about the trip, however, was the differing philosophies each museum had on displaying their collections. I observed that the Denver Art Museum held a classic, or traditional, philosophy of exhibition. Works from multiple artists were put in conversation with each other to create a theme for each gallery. This philosophy was similar to how our class chose to exhibit different artists’ works to create the theme of identity in the UnBlocked Gallery. The Clyfford Still Museum, as per request of the artist, only exhibited artworks created by the abstract expressionist, Clyfford Still. Still believed that an artist’s work should be shown as a singular body of work so that each work provides context to the other, to enable the viewer to fully understand the oeuvre and style of the artist over time. While I enjoy the classical approach to exhibiting artwork, as demonstrated at the DAM and believe it has its merits, I also feel as if I understand Still’s motives as an artist more comprehensively by seeing his works in conversation with each other. I hope to see both methods of exhibition again in the future!
