Las Vegas Weekly

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Kristen Peterson

Tue, Feb 16, 2010 (5:12 p.m.)

Photo: Leila Navidi

Antony Gormley's "Bodies in Space VIII," part of the "12 + 7: Artists and Architects of CityCenter" exhibit at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009.

Gone are the Las Vegas Art Museum, the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum and Steve Wynn's open-to-the-public art collection.

That leaves the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art as the only game in town showing museum-quality works and a hot spot for art student field trips.

Problem is, how do general visitors comprehend a John McCracken, absorb the idea of finish fetish or understand how mind blowing it is to see an early Stuart Davis landscape painting without knowing the context of the artist's career?

Art teaches, challenges and provokes, but often it's speaking another language. Visual isn't as universal of a language as it may seem, particularly when it comes to contemporary art and those handy audio guides aren't there to take questions.

Museums — fine art to history — often have docents giving tours and explaining things, even the unexplainable. Though it's not a museum, the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art is now offering its own docent tours to enrich the visitor's experience.

The tours are limited — 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays on a first-come and first serve basis — but they are included with admission. At $15 a ticket ($12 for Nevada residents) you might as well get your money's worth.