Other Art Tourist columns:
- A
novice Art Tourist in Paris (AT in Paris 1)
- Sante
Fe with the Art Tourist
- Art
Tourist in Paris 2
- Art
Tourist in Paris 3
For
more information about Talty or to read selected clips:
Resume
- Plans Change, Promises, too
- Time Share
Creates Warm Beds
- Follow game to
understand TDR
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Art Tourist returns to Denver,
Landing in the one-time largest public art project
in America
DENVER — Getting off a plane at Denver International Airport, an Art
Tourist may be haunted by evidence of artist-elves at work. There are
fossils in the floors of Concourse A; big folded-paper airplanes hover
above riders ascending escalators from the trains underground level to the main terminal.
Above the train line, is the hub of a concourse, with wings of gates extending to each side. In these hubs are big sculptures any
Art Tourist would be hard pressed to miss. These are busy sculptures
that fit the mood of frantic travelers worried about missing their plane
or connection, or nervous about wasting time waiting for the plane,
or harried at having allowed too much time in order not to be frantic.
This last one, the over-early Art Tourist, can take a train ride to
the concourses they were not planning to visit during this flight, and
look at the sculptures — a busy ode to transporation, a movie set style
Mayan ruin and a naturalistic canopy of color.
While on the
train this Art Tourist, returning from a long trip on the other side of the planet, was as giddy as a child on a first trip. Seeing the dark train tunnel light up with a series of whirly-gig sculptures activated by the movement of the train, and then hearing Colorado voices. When any traveler exits the
train or waits for one to come, Colorado voices, I recognize, announce
the next actions of the train. “Train arriving at Concours A,”
says Raynelda Muse, a long-time Denver newscaster, or “Doors closing,”
says Pete Smythe, a voice that embodies cowboys and campfires and was
the state’s Walter Cronkite throughout the ‘50s. Thanks to sound artist Jim Green, everyone gets a very Western 'howdy' or a personal “Welcome Home.”
In the terminal, the Art Tourist will have the opportunity to see the
balustrade by Boulder’s grand dame of ceramic sculpture, Betty
Woodman. If you’ve seen one Woodman, well, you’ll recognize
these.
One of the most
interesting pieces at the airport is on a hallway that separates the
West and East Terminals. It's all about travel in the 50s, a photo montage
with humor. This is not a hallway one would usually traverse, so finding
it may take some Art Tourist dedication.
Excuse me, what’s your favorite sculpture in the airport? You
didn’t know there were sculptures at the airport?
Is this airport information? Do you have a catalogue of the artwork
in the building? Oh, you ran out of these several years ago. Thank you.
Being in the know as we are, we Art Tourists, we have sought out and
seen, and have been totally stimulated by the artwork at the airport,
and the only job left was to be totally critical of the show installed
along the long pedestrian walkway to Concourse A. This month, the show
was pictures of famous Indians - ho hum, we’ve seen these same
portraits in every book on the West.
Are we, the Art Tourists, yet salivating at the prospect of seeing more
contemporary art in Denver outside the white dome of the terminals?
Surprise — at the "Welcome to DIA — Jepson Terminal" sign, the Art Tourist
is not confronted with the giant
fiberglass and gleaming auto body painted Mustang sculpture commissioned
from Sante Fe artist Luis Jimenez — it's not there, yet.
The city offers a small contemporary museum; a city-run, fine-art museum
designed by Geo Ponte, an addition in progress imagined by the architect
who also won the competition for the re-do at the World Trade Center, and
a Robert Graves designed public library, but sadly too few funds to have
any intelligent shows inside the art museum. For contemporary art, visit
south Broadway — Rule Gallery or LoDo — Robischon.
Many Art Tourists
we never leave the airport, make a connection instead, and may be happily
transported to a land of more and better art unless they are destined for Salt
Lake City, the real, not virtual, wastland of modern art. (See Art Tourist
at the Olympics).
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More Out to Lunch
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