DAM

Over the weekend, I went to the newly remodeled Denver Art Museum. In some ways, it was quite impressive. They've always had a great collection of American Indian, Pre-Colombian, and Mesoamerican pieces...I could spend days in just those sections. I was somewhat put off by the fact that there was an odd painting of John Wayne in the Native American section with a quote from him stating that what the white man did to the Indians was justifiable because the white man needed the land. This struck me as more than a bit odd considering that if you look around the corner, you can see a picture of a group of what might be Cherokee at the end of the Trail of Tears. That just didn't make sense to me.

The new section of the museum also has a large collection of Contemporary Art, which I have to admit I don't always get. I'm not sure how a bull's head stripped of skin and sitting in formaldehyde is art...if you can explain that one to me, please try...I probably still won't get it. I've never been a fan of Jackson Pollack, and a lot of the contemporary stuff is just cheap knock offs of his work. I'm thinking about soaking my cat's paws in paint and letting her run around on a canvas...I could call it "A Cat's Perspective on Life." Who knows? I might never have to work again.

There was one piece that really struck me. It was an "update" of the Madonna holding Jesus. In this piece, Jesus was actually Hitler as a baby, and he was surrounded by the SS. That piece really hit home for me...