Over the past several years, I have been the social chair for a local Denver women’s organization. What this means is that I have the pleasure of planning events for the many local women who are part of our organization… and that I have the pleasure of visiting with handfuls of them on a monthly basis.
I plan happy hours, dinners, brunches, volunteer opportunities, and cultural events. This month, I planned a visit to the Denver Art Museum for us to see our 2nd exhibit of the year. Our first was the AWESOME Yves Saint Laurent exhibit, and yesterday we went to the museum to see the Becoming Van Gogh exhibit.
I’ve always loved this piece outside of the Denver Art Museum. Keeping things nice and clean outside, I suppose…
Snow on the ground in front of the Denver Art Museum
The tiny bit of snow on the ground couldn’t keep the ladies away, but limited tickets could. We had a super-small turnout for this event, heavily due to the demand associated with this event! It’s running in Denver until late January, but has been selling out every weekend since it opened. Thank goodness you can pre-purchase tickets online, or none of us would have made it!
I enjoy the opportunity to see fine art, and to learn a little about the associated history. I’ve been a member of the museum for the past year, so I had a chance to get discounted tickets which included an audio tour of the exhibit.
Waiting with Kim and Bev to see the show
One more shot with Vinny in the background…
Becoming Van Gogh covered the artistic progression of Vincent Van Gogh. You could see a HUGE distinction between his early and late paintings. Not having been very familiar with his work and surprisingly to me… the early paintings were dark (both in composition and in color.) As time went on and Van Gogh begin to lose his mind, his paintings grew in color and in light.
Overall though, the exhibit left me wanting a little bit more…
One thing that was a little disappointing was that I didn’t get to hear about the man, just his art. I always like to know about the people… the history… the stories… and that EAR. This exhibit focused more on the techniques. Now, it would have also helped if I wasn’t completely distracted by wanting to visit with friends and overwhelmed by the number of people at the exhibit… I did find a lot of paintings that I really liked, including this one.
I also expected to see some of Van Gogh’s most famous works, but those were left in Amsterdam as well. That meant, no Starry Night, nor Irises, nor many of the other paintings we think of when we think of Van Gogh.
What did I love about this exhibit?
In addition to visiting with friends (which is always awesome), I loved the gift shop. Yes, that’s super-lame, I know… but they did a GREAT job with Van Gogh memorabilia. I didn’t purchase these items, but I did pick up a postcard for my grandpa and a few Christmas gifts from the gift shop.
How about this Van Gogh stuffed doll. Look closely, and you’ll see that it comes with a REMOVABLE EAR that comes apart with velcro! Amazing!
They also offered an EAR-ring – – an earring keychain. Hilars!
After our tour through the museum, we headed across the street for lunch at one of my favorite spots: Mad Greens!
If you’ve never enjoyed Mad Greens, it’s a quick dining establishment like Panera or Chipotle, only they serve up the most delicious salads! I always love an excuse to enjoy Mad Greens, and in honor of the exhibit, they even had a special salad on the menu:
All of their salads and sandwiches are named after famous thinkers and artists in history, and of course, they had a special Van Gogh salad in honor of the exhibit. I couldn’t pass up a chance to have my favorite salad though, and went with my standard Da Vinci salad.
The Da Vinci consists of mixed greens topped with artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, red onions, and I add citrus-grilled chicken and (of course) roasted beets. I also top the salad with their amazing roasted red pepper salad dressing. It all comes together to make the most delicious, delicious salad.
LOVE
The ladies and I spent about an hour visiting and enjoying salads before heading back out into the FREEZING cold Denver weather. I really enjoy these events though, and I always feel like it’s more fun to go to exhibits with friends.
Who’s your favorite artist?