Monday, January 25, 2010

SALVADOR DALI EXHIBIT FOLLOWS AFTER LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S ALTAR SHOW AT THE LOVELAND MUSEUM IN COLORADO

DALÍ ILLUSTRATES DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY, the newest exhibit at the Loveland Museum/Gallery, comes right on the heels of Laurie Zuckerman's solo altar exhibit, Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family at the museum last fall. What a fabulous show of prints and photographs—the best work by Dalí I have ever seen. These drawings, watercolors, and prints are so spiritual. His inspiring drawing is far more subtle and evocative than his well-known oil paintings of many similar themes. The Loveland Museum gets some great shows. Wayne Thiebaud from California and the Gee's Bend Quilts from Alabama preceded my exhibit that opened August 29th.

I am honored that my Memento Mori exhibit was directly preceded by the staggering 70-year retrospective of Wayne Thiebaud's lush paintings, especially his gravity-defying paintings from the streets of San Francisco series. Thiebaud's scheduling problems knocked my own exhibit forward to the fall slot, giving me a much appreciated three-month bonus to finish the difficult writing my exhibition interpretative panels. On the other hand, it cramped the amount of time I had to install my exhibit by a couple of days. Wonderful friend/volunteers stepped in to save the day for me, especially Colorado artists, Karen Fischer and Dixie Straight. Another added benefit of having Thiebaud's paintings bump my show was that my the new schedule coincidentally allowed me to end my exhibit on November 1, 2009 in coordination with Mexico's Dia de los Muertos. Plus an early snowstorm postponed my Day of the Dead lecture until November 1, so I had a fantastic closing day "celebration" for my show.