Chuck Close. In the last few years, the Loveland Museum and Gallery has stepped up its game by presenting the work of famous artists. And the beat goes on with Chuck Close: A Couple of Ways of Doing Something. Close first came to the fore in the 1970s with hyper-realist portraits based on photos. As his work matured in the 1980s, he developed his own brand of pointillism to carry out his imagery (which still made obvious references to photography). In 1988, though, Close suffered a spinal artery collapse that left him mostly paralyzed from the neck down. But after only six months of physical therapy, he was painting again — first with a brush in his teeth and then with one strapped to his wrist! The Loveland show features his photos, including a set of works based on a series of 2004 daguerreotypes depicting his friends. There are also digital prints and amazing jacquard tapestries on view here. Through December 31 at the Loveland Museum and Gallery, 503 Lincoln Avenue, Loveland, 1-970-962-2410, www.ci.loveland.co.us. Reviewed October 20.
Clyfford Still. For the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, founding director Dean Sobel has installed a career survey of the great artist. Clyfford Still: Inaugural Exhibition starts with the artist's realist self-portrait and features his remarkable post-impressionist works from the 1920s. Next are Still's works from the '30s, with some odd takes on regionalism and some figurative surrealist paintings. Sobel saw a seed for Still's abstract expressionism in the line following the shoulders of the figures in these works that appears throughout the artist's career. Then there's his first great leap forward as the representational surrealist works give way to abstract ones. Still makes his big break in the early 1940s, becoming the first artist to arrive at abstract expressionism. Seeing so many classic Stills at once is an indescribable experience. Looking at the work dating from the '40s and '50s, it's easy to see why Still is regarded as one of the great masters of American art. Sobel has also done a survey of Still's career in miniature using the artist's works on paper. Through March 31 at the Clyfford Still Museum, 1250 Bannock Street, 720-354-4880, http://clyffordstillmuseum.org. Reviewed November 10.
Jill Hadley Hooper. Tina Goodwin is a longtime veteran of the Denver art world, having started out some thirty years ago. But last March, she decided to strike out on her own and opened a spot just a stone's throw from the Civic Center Cultural Complex. The current show is The Weight of Things: Jill Hadley Hooper, which showcases the well-known Denver artist's newest paintings. Hooper is not only a painter, but also an illustrator, and she's built a national reputation with her work. The paintings at Goodwin depict heirlooms and other family pieces. Using oil-based inks and crayons on wood, Hooper creates a ground and then inserts lyrical depictions of these inherited pieces in the center of the picture plane. Hooper has written that the show's title is a clever play on words, and it is — in more ways than one. First, the idea of "weight" suggests emotional heaviness, and second, Hooper renders the pieces of furniture as though they are floating and thus "weightless." The resulting paintings are nominally representational, but clearly not realist in style. Through December 3 at Goodwin Fine Art, 1255 Delaware Street, 303-573-1255, www.goodwinfineart.com. Reviewed November 17.
Robert Adams. Robert Adams: The Place We Live, at the Denver Art Museum, is made up of more than 200 black-and-white prints put together by the Yale University Art Gallery's Joshua Chuang and Jock Reynolds. But for its stop in Denver, DAM photo curator Eric Paddock, a longtime friend of Adams's, tweaked the traveling show, becoming a co-curator of sorts. The Place We Live forces viewers to realize that Adams did many other things aside from his famous and unforgettable images indicting humanity's destruction of the earth — though they are enough to ensure his place in art history. The show includes a number of revelations. First is how intimate his pieces are, owing to their small size. Second is his unexpected debt to the great survey photographers of the nineteenth century, notably Timothy O'Sullivan. Finally, from a technical standpoint, there is the incredible high quality of his prints, which likewise recall historic landscape photos. Through January 1 at the Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, 720-865-5000, www.denverartmuseum.org. Reviewed October 27.
What Is Modern? Department of Architecture, Design and Graphics curator Darrin Alfred has put together this large show dedicated to furniture and decor from the early nineteenth to the early 21st century. Alfred has included groundbreaking tables, storage units, lighting and — no surprise here, considering Alfred's specialty — graphics. Laudably, Alfred takes a chronological look at how technological advancements informed the development of modernism, starting with a bentwood chair from 1808 by Samuel Gragg. Its overall form is very sleek, with a gracefully curving back, but the details are very different, being almost precious, like the little hooves that mark the termination of the legs. One of the newest pieces in the show is "Roadrunner," a chair from 2006 by Colorado's own David Larabee and Dexter Thornton working together as DoubleButter. Made of a cheap synthetic, the chair is nonetheless elegant. In between the two chairs, Alfred has installed a wide assortment of classics from the annals of modernism. Through November 30 at the Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, 720-865-5000, www.denverartmuseum.org. Reviewed December 23.
