DENVER, CO.- Throughout 2024, the Denver Art Museum broadened its collection through acquisitions across its ten curatorial departments. This ongoing refinement and development of the museum’s holdings extends the DAM’s long-standing commitment to creating, maintaining and displaying a diverse collection that reflects its community and provides access and insight into cultures from around the world, through the centuries. Artworks acquired between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, included both purchases and gifts and encompass a range of works by women and artists of color, including important contemporary voices. The museum also continued its tradition of acquiring works by artists featured in DAM-organized exhibitions for the permanent collection.

Some highlights of the past year’s acquisitions include:

• Rendering of a Mulatta, a 1711 painting attributed to Manuel de Arellano that is one of the most widely reproduced Spanish Colonial paintings;

• 49 works by studio glass artists from the collection of Judy and Stuart Heller, along with seven studio glass works by Marvin Lipofsky from the Marvin Lipofsky Studio;

• A gift of 112 studies by Leslie Tillett, complementing the Tillett tapiz in the Arts of the Ancient Americas collection;

• A monumental 6x8 ft. beaded work by Teri Greeves—her largest work to date—currently on view in Sustained! The Persistent Genius of Indigenous Art purchased through the Nancy Blomberg Acquisitions Fund for Native American Art; and

• A work by photographer Abelardo Morell that focused his signature approach on the Colorado landscape, specifically Mt. Sopris.

In addition, works acquired in the past year from exhibitions include a painting by
Amoako Boafo (Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks), a hand-tufted wool carpet by Alexandra Kehayoglou (Biophilia: Nature Reimagined), Carlos Santistevan’s Hydraulic Huarache (Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion); six photographs by Trent Davis Bailey (Personal Geographies); and three textile works by Nancy Hemenway Barton, which will go on view February 16, 2025, in Confluence of Nature: Nancy Hemenway Barton.

Architecture and Design

The Architecture and Design department acquired 81 objects from 53 artists and designers, including works by many women creators and 12 artists of color.

Argentine textile artist Alexandra Kehayoglou’s hand-tufted wool carpet, Bajío (Lowland), depicts a small fragment of biodiverse wetlands in the Paraná River Delta near Buenos Aires, which is facing ecological change due to urban growth, unsustainable agricultural practices and climate change. “If activism has the task of ringing the alarm, art and design can offer ways to connect us with something beyond. Something more spiritual,” explains Kehayoglou. “We must hold on to hope... hope offers a path forward.”

In addition, a gift of 49 works by studio glass artists from the collection of Judy and Stuart Heller, along with seven studio glass works by Marvin Lipofsky, expands the design collection. Seattle-based Korean designer Jay Sae Jung Oh’s Salvage Series Chair is composed of discarded musical instruments—including drums, a trumpet and a ukulele—as well as other found and cast-off objects. The resulting visually stunning and thought-provoking work challenges perceptions of beauty, waste, memory and the passage of time.

Arts of Asia

In the past year, the Arts of Asia department acquired 21 works including ceramics, paintings, woodblock prints, photography, mixed media, sculpture, a lacquer box and a musical instrument for its collection.

Sano Keisuke 佐野圭亮’s Budding of Recollection (Sousou ju 想々樹) comments on universal notions of attachment and memory. The iridescent strips of mother-of-pearl on the domed lid were harvested along various coasts, including Japan, China and Korea. Crowning this maki-e (sprinkled pictures) box is a minuscule finial—itself a functional box. “By treasuring an object and stowing it away,” Sano Keisuke notes, “we in effect instigate a process of forgetting.”

The department also received the gift of Album Dedicated to Mr. Xinzhang from Robert and Lisa Kessler. Studded with the brightest stars of 20th century Chinese ink—including Huang Junbi, Yu Youren, Sun Yunsheng, Prince Pu Ru and many others—this important album is a physical manifestation of how this group of artists used art as a mode of communication, a token of friendship, as the main occasion in a scholars’ gathering and ultimately, its enduring memento.

Arts of the Ancient Americas

Of the department’s 118 acquisitions in the past year, 112 are hand-drawn studies gifted by the family of artist Leslie Tillett. These pieces represent the artifacts, research documents and hundreds of reproductions from the Florentine Codex, as well as the writings of Bernal Diaz and many others that contributed to the final tapestry. Their inclusion in the collection alongside the Tillett tapiz allow for extrapolation of differences between the studies and final work. These studies are featured in Ink & Thread: Codices and the Art of Storytelling, currently on view.

A 2001 mixed media assemblage by local Chicano artist Carlos Santistevan, seen in Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion, Hydraulic Huarache was one of the department’s six purchases. A key figure in Denver’s artistic community for over 60 years, Santistevan marched alongside Corky Gonzales and César Chávez in 1968, opened the first Chicano art gallery in Denver (El Grito de Aztlán, next to the Crusade for Justice headquarters) and co-founded the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council (CHAC). As a DAM trustee in the 1980s, Santistevan played a pivotal role in bringing the Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985 exhibition to the museum in 1992.

European and American Art Before 1900

Of the seven artworks added to the department of European and American Art Before 1900 in 2024, three were by women artists, including a work by the late 19th century sculptor Ottilie Maclaren Wallace. Bust of a Man strengthens the collection of 19th and early 20th century sculptures, filling a major gap in this area. Wallace, a contemporary of Camille Claudel, trained in the studio of the Scottish sculptor James Pittendrigh MacGillivray and worked as an assistant in the Parisian studio of Auguste Rodin. This bust showcases the fingerprints of the sculptor in a modern composition of a man holding his right hand towards his ear. Escaping from the conventions of the traditional portrait, traces of modeling were deliberately left visible, in particular around the beard and hair. The crushed clay of the lower part contrasts with the more polished face, giving the illusion that the latter has emerged from the mass of the earth.

Joining several bronze sculptures in our collection made by modern French sculptors, Antonin Mercié’s Gloria Victis is a landmark in the history of 19th century sculpture. An allegorical figure of Glory stands, her wings spread, armored and carrying a young dying warrior who is loosely grasping a broken sword. In contrast to the long tradition of commemorative sculpture, this piece was made to celebrate the vanquished after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The statue personifies France as defeated but heroic, emphasizing a sense of national identity.

Daniel Ridgway Knight’s An Idle Moment is a significant addition to the 19th century American art collection, allowing us to further explore the artistic experience of American artists in France. After studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Knight pursued his artistic education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. A decade later, after fighting in the Civil War, he returned to settle in France. While his depictions of French peasant life were more concerned with beautifully rendered landscapes and detailed representation of clothing than the reality of labor, he was highly valued on both sides of the Atlantic for his serene representation of rural life.

Latin American Art

The department added 35 works in total, ranging from colonial to modern and contemporary Latin American art, including works by 13 BIPOC artists and six women artists as well as unknown artists, such as the ones who created this atrial cross.

Carved by Indigenous artists under the supervision of mendicant friars, this atrial cross from the 1500s once stood at the center of an enclosed atrium in front of a mission church in Mexico. The cross served as an early tool for native converts to learn about the Passion. The wooden material and carved shapes connected to the Indigenous idea of a tree as the symbolic center of the universe from which the human race emerged.

Attributed to Manuel de Arellano, Rendering of a Mulatta is one of the most widely reproduced Spanish Colonial paintings, the gift from the collection of Fredrick and Jan Mayer is a significant addition to the collection. Dating from 1711, it is a rare depiction of an Afro-Mexican woman dressed in traditional garments—a Mexican shawl (rebozo) and a distinctive overblouse (manga), worn exclusively by women of African descent. Despite holding a lower social standing, this woman wears elaborate jewelry including a six-strand pearl choker, pearl earrings and multiple coral rings.

A contemporary video artwork made in 2023 by José Ballivián also was added to the collection. An Aymara/Bolivian artist who has worked in the last two decades with drawing, painting, object making and video, Ballivián mainly deals with the many intersections between traditional cultures and practices, and the daily happenings of large Bolivian cities today. His Espíritu del rio, made entirely with CGI (Computer Generated Images), explores the connections between spirituality and fiction in a sequence of images that seem more like a labyrinthic dream than reality.

Modern and Contemporary Art

Of the 34 pieces acquired in 2024 by the department of Modern and Contemporary Art, 14 were by women artists and 12 by artists of color, continuing to expand the range of voices, viewpoints and life experiences represented in the collection.

Intimately connected to his experience as a Ghanaian artist living and working between Africa and Europe, Amoako Boafo makes art with tenderness and conviction. His paintings emerge from direct touch, swirling ribbons of paint with fingers, creating lush portraits that celebrate beauty, confidence and joy. In Pink Astilbe, the spare scene contrasts with the rich texture of the artist’s painterly technique, which gives the seated figure a palpable energy. Her confident gaze suggests a woman unapologetically owning the body and space she inhabits. This painting was the inaugural acquisition funded through the Black Arts Collective and was on view at the DAM in Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks, the debut solo museum exhibition tour for the Ghanaian artist.

Sculpting in plaster, fiberglass and bronze, Syrian American artist Diana Al-Hadid weaves together enigmatic narratives inspired by ancient and modern civilizations. Her rich allegorical constructions are born from art history, Christian iconography, Islamic manuscripts and folklore, especially as they relate to women and mothers. In her bronze sculpture The Bride in the Large Glass, the body becomes a kind of scaffold or superstructure formed through contradiction and intuition, probability and impossibility.
Works by Anicka Yi and Chitra Ganesh, as well as other artists, also entered the collection this year.

Native Arts

In 2024, the Native Arts department acquired a total of 17 artworks— all by Indigenous women.

Teri Greeves (Kiowa) used plant material from the Northern and Southern Plains regions of what is today the United States to hand-dye the background composition of Sons of the Sun. She then beaded imagery of the Half Boys—important protagonists and holy beings in Kiowa storytelling—their Kiowa mother and their father the Sun, creating her largest work to date, 8 x 6 feet. The work is now on view in Sustained! The Persistent Genius of Indigenous Art.

Polar bear sketching people, a 2023 drawing, is one of the first two works by Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona to enter the DAM’s collection. Featured at the Venice Biennale in 2022, her work has received critical acclaim across Europe and North America. Blending her own experiences with her imagination, Ashoona creates a universe that combines daily life with the fantastical.

The department also was gifted Fritz Scholder’s Deco Indian. Among the foremost Indigenous contemporary artists of his time, the Luiseño artist broke new ground and influenced subsequent generations of artists. While Scholder’s reverse-image lithograph based on this painting is known widely, the original painting had been in a private collection since the 1970s, unseen by the public.

Photography

Of the 272 photographic works acquired by the department in 2024, 33 were by women artists, 23 by artists of color and 2 by non-binary artists. Three of the photographers whose works entered the collection this year—Sky Hopinka, Flor Garduño and Christina Fernandez—also visited as Anderman Lecture Series speakers.
The DAM commissioned photographer Abelardo Morell to bring his signature approach to the landscapes of Colorado. Using a prism to project his view of Mt. Sopris onto the ground inside a tent, Morell created a photograph that describes both the landscape “out there” and the place where he stood as he made the picture. The photograph anchors viewers in place and time as they enjoy this picturesque vista.

For her series Li/mb, photographer Keisha Scarville was inspired by Guyanese author Wilson Harris’s writings about limbo history. Scarville uses fabrics, her own body and the limbo dance as a metaphor through which to consider ways the Black body has been forced to constrain itself and to explore how one can recreate and reshape oneself. In Negotiation/Maneuver (3), limbs support a body that hovers outside the frame and mingle with cast shadows and patterned textiles to create a dynamic composition that defies space and the expected configuration of the body.

Jess T. Dugan’s collaborative photographic portraits reflect on the importance of representation and are informed in part by Dugan’s own life experience as a queer, non-binary person. The tender dual portrait Oskar and Zach (embrace) shares a glimpse of their personal story, encourages understanding and inspires conversations around the complexity of identity, love and the human experience. These portraits were purchased with funds from the Photography Acquisition Alliance.

Textile Arts & Fashion

Works entering the Textile Arts and Fashion Department this year added to both collecting areas, including pieces by noted fashion designers, three works by contemporary textile artist Nancy Hemenway Barton, Korean and Japanese textiles and kimonos, as well as a number of textile works that represent 14 Indonesian cultures/regions. The department’s 174 acquisitions in 2024 included 166 gifts with over 16 makers known to be women and/or makers of color, while several creators are unrecorded.

A very fine early 19th century Indonesian ceremonial cloth (palepai) was purchased for the collection with funds from the Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion Endowment. The palepai, or ship cloth, has long been recognized as the pinnacle of Indonesian weaving. Indonesian aristocrats hung these cloths at life-cycle rituals such as engagements, marriages, births, circumcisions and funerals. This cloth, with its double-red ships, would have been used in a marriage ceremony with two ships representing each clan. The addition of this masterwork elevates the museum’s growing collection of Indonesian textiles.

Nancy Hemenway Barton was an American artist who specialized in textile wall sculptures created from a wide range of fabrics sourced from indigenous weaving communities around the world. This donation—made possible by the late artist’s sons—represents three distinct series in the artist’s oeuvre, each part of the artist’s private collection in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. All three, including Talus, will be on view in Confluence of Nature: Nancy Hemenway Barton, opening February 16, 2025.

Ann Lowe, now recognized as one of the most impactful fashion designers in the U.S., was the first African American fashion designer who became well known. She came from a family of skilled dressmakers who sewed for wealthy white families. Moving to New York in 1917 to attend the S.T. Taylor School of Design, Lowe successfully completed the program in half the required time, despite experiencing extreme discrimination and segregation. In 1928 Lowe opened her own salon in New York City, becoming a noted American couturier. Her most historically significant commission was the bridal gown and bridal party dresses for the 1953 wedding of Jacqueline Bouvier and then-Senator John F. Kennedy, who was elected president of the United States in 1961. Denver-based donor Philae Carver Dominick wore this gown to her 1965 San Francisco debut. In 2024, Lowe was the subject of a major exhibition and publication, Anne Lowe: American Couturier at the Winterthur Museum.

The fashion collection was also enhanced by a dress from Alexander McQueen’s Spring-Summer 2010 collection. One of the most innovative British designers of the late 20th century, McQueen’s work consistently combined precise tailoring techniques with a futuristic vision. Other fine examples of high style—including an iconic little black dress circa 1926 by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, an evening gown from Rick Owens’ Spring-Summer 2020 collection, and a significant gift of Vivienne Tam fashion, as well as designs from Hong Kong luxury fashion house Shanghai Tang—also entered the collection in 2024.

Western American Art

The Petrie Institute of Western American Art added a total of 116 acquisitions to its holdings over the past year, including several modern and contemporary works in mediums ranging from woodblock print to enamel paint on canvas.

Based in the Dallas area, Jessie Jo Eckford traveled extensively throughout the American Southwest, the East Coast and internationally. Her woodblock prints often depict scenes from her travels—including White Sands (New Mexico), a piece from the 1930s that was gifted to the department. During her career, Eckford exhibited in Dallas and contributed to group shows throughout the country.

Paintings by the following two living and active artists were also purchased this year.
Christopher Benson has lived a peripatetic life between the East and West coasts and the Southwest, where he now lives. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he studied painting at the Woodstock Country School and at the Rhode Island School of Design. His 2014 painting Cordova Ruin—part of a series featuring streets and houses from around the United States—features crumbling architecture in the town of Cordova, New Mexico, located on the scenic High Road (New Mexico State Road 76) between Taos and Santa Fe.

Born in Ohio in 1947, Billy Schenck studied art and design at the Columbus College of Art and Design and the Kansas City Art Institute before moving to New York City in the 1960s, where he worked for Andy Warhol and started exhibiting his own work. Since then, Schenck has immersed himself in the styles of Pop Art, Minimalism and Color Field Painting. Half Tone Flats encapsulates Schenck’s unique combination of modern Pop Art-influenced design with Western subject matter.

The works by Christopher Benson and Billy Schenck were acquired with funds from the DAM Westerners.

Throughout the curatorial departments of the DAM, the varied artworks added to the collection in the past year reinforce the museum’s mission to further enlarge the range of voices represented and continues to extend the scope of stories the DAM can tell in its galleries.