3/5 A Google U. 1 year ago on Google
Found
ourselves
in
Denver
for
2
days
at
the
end
of
a
vacation
and
this
place
was
near
our
hotel
so
decided
to
check
it
out.
First
the
good:
charming
building!
Some
nice
pieces
throughout
with
some
important
art
movements
represented
The
big
criticism:
over
300
paintings
and
180
artists
represented
and
I
counted
ONE
painting
by
a
non-European
American
artist
(a
portrait
by
mixed
race
artist
Fritz
Scholder,
tucked
away
in
a
corner
on
the
top
floor.)
This
is
a
museum
of
almost
all
white
dudes.
Of
course
a
museum
can’t
be
everything,
but
I
kept
wanting
the
various
perspectives
of
the
idea
of
West
that
the
museum
purports
to
present,
especially
a
museum
that
pays
heed
(or
perhaps
just
lip-service)
to
the
ancestral
lands
of
the
Ute,
Cheyenne,
and
Arapahoe
peoples
in
their
promotional
materials.
So
instead
of
using
a
Kim
Wiggins
painting
called
“Merging
of
cultures”
(not
a
great
painting,
sorry)
to
represent
the
contributions
of
non-European
peoples
on
southwest
culture,
why
not
find
exciting
indigenous
artists
from
those
regions
to
capture
the
richness
of
that
contribution?
We
can
do
better!
This
doesn’t
require
a
complete
overhaul;
how
much
more
rich
an
experience
it
would
be
if
a
19th
century
East
coast
European
depiction
of
an
Apache
chief
was
shown
alongside
an
artwork
from
an
Apache
artist
from
the
same
time?
Or
at
the
very
least,
reserve
a
section
of
the
third
floor
for
the
really
exciting
western
Native
American
artists
finally
being
given
overdue
recognition
today.
I’m
talking
maybe
10-20
pieces
to
at
least
acknowledge
that
our
artistic
understanding
of
West
expands
beyond
the
exclusively
European-derived
one.
One
hopes
that
a
small
fraction
of
the
Anchutz
billions
will
help
bring
better
balance
to
this
promising
space.
By
the
way:
one
of
the
collection’s
coolest
paintings,
a
large
church
facade
by
Harold
Joe
Waldron,
hides
in
the
top
floor
stairwell…check
it
out!
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