Denver Art Museum- Bonfils-Stanton Modern & Contemporary Art Exhibit

As I walked through the Denver Art Museum’s exhibit of modern and contemporary art, I couldn’t help but be confused. As I struggled to make sense of the art I was seeing, I thought back to Richard Avedon’s quotation that all art is meant to disturb. Many people define good and meaningful art as art that makes people look twice. Eyebrow raised and head tilted, I stopped to stare at many of the modern and contemporary pieces for more than just a few moments.

One piece that was particularly frightening was a sculpture of a seemingly demonized African-American baby standing upright in a crib surrounded by shredded materials. This piece was hidden behind a wall, and when I saw it I actually jumped back in fright. Another spooky piece was Stacey Steers’ Haunted House, which appeared like a black haunted dollhouse with projections of scary images like snakes and rats in each room.

Unlike many other genres of art, modern art is extremely abstract and has no cohesion or common theme. I struggled to compare the pieces with each other because they were so different. As I walked by a white sculpture of a naked boy with a black scarecrow on his head and a naked woman on the floor with an enlarged black hand, I would turn my head only to find another seemingly senseless piece of a small man made of Styrofoam enclosed in a glass case. There were few artist statements to accompany the pieces, so my understanding of them was left to my own interpretation.

            What at times frustrated me as I walked through the exhibit was that though many of the pieces I saw made me look twice, they didn’t seem to shock me in a meaningful way. It was especially frustrating when the artistry of the pieces seemed less than impressive, like the Styrofoam man, for instance. I couldn’t help but think to myself that I could create a man out of Styrofoam, perhaps even a more visually interesting one.

            Then there were the occasional pieces that did shock me in a meaningful way, like Fox Games, by Sandy Skoguld. Skoguld combines various mediums of art, such as theater, sculpture, paint, and photography to create an illusory and imaginative world where gray life-size sculptures of foxes are prancing around an all red dining room. Absolutely everything is painted red except the foxes, making them stand out beautifully against their surroundings. The wires that are suspending the foxes in the air are also painted red, making it look as though the animals are actually jumping through the air.

            Another powerful piece was a large sculpture by the African artist, El Anatsui, made entirely out of bottle caps. In his artist statement, he says that he hopes to show people that they can make art out of anything. He wants to show that metal, which is commonly thought of as a rigid material, can actually be very pliable and easily manipulated. The large sculpture has large flowing cracks and crevasses, making it appear like a waving flag. I thought that this was a very visually and conceptually inspiring piece.

            For me, I think that modern art will always be a hit or miss. I find the abstraction and surrealism of the genre interesting, but at times frustrating. It is so varied with contemporary artists contrasting conceptions of art and methods of experimentation that I will never have a consistent response to it.