A Stop in Denver (3 of 3)

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 Yes, Colorado has wonderful natural attractions, but we decided to postpone that area of exploration in order to take in something I had read about recently in some art history books. 

It was a quick trip from Fort Collins down to Denver where we would catch the flight back to CA. Denver also happens to be the home of one of a handful of single-artist museums in the US: the Clyfford Still Museum.

Lately I have been doing a lot of reading on modern art history and have been captivated by the Abstract Expressionists, particularly the "Color Field" artists. This is partly a revisiting of my art student roots, as I am increasingly called upon to verbalize my own artistic sensibilities, and the motivations behind my current creations in artist's statements and other written word. 

Believe me, nothing surprises me more than this new appreciation of the abstract. (As an art student, I was firmly grounded in the figurative, realistic camp.) Perhaps the medium of fabric and the techniques in quilting stirred my thought to simplification, or it could be there is a sense that "I've been there, done that" in the realm of realism. Maybe my tastes have matured.

Clyfford Still Museum

In any case, I've been drawn to artists like Rothko and Still for the shear size of their work and the vast amount of negative space. Writers often talk about being absorbed in the color, the texture, the composition as they stand in front of their work. It takes up one's entire field of vision. So with that in mind, I was pleased to see Still's work in person.

Detail of the canvas on the right (above)

 From a distance, the canvas seems filled with solid colors in random shapes, but you can see in the detail shot there are subtleties within the shapes and lots of surface texture. 

It reminds me of whole cloth quilts in which the viewers' attention is captivated by the textures of the quilting over vast areas of color, . . . interesting! Of course a quilt has the added advantage that you can actually be physically enveloped in the art work, and I find that very compelling. So this trip helped gel some ideas I've been playing with for a while.


The Clyfford Still Museum has rather an eccentric history. The artist did not sell much of his work in his life time. He very much wanted his paintings to stay together, and to be viewed as a whole, so in his will he offered the entire collection to any city that would build a museum to exclusively house his work. Still numbered his paintings rather than giving them a title. The curators rotate the exhibits regularly and when a "never before seen" piece is exhibited there is a notation on the title plate. 

Another feature of some of the spaces in this gallery is a soundtrack meant to inspire the viewer to assess the work in relation to very modern music. It is an interesting  and provocative presentation, but for some viewers it might feel like sensory overload. 

The museum succeeds in presenting this unique artistic voice to the general public. It should be noted that this perspective was clearly developed over a lifetime as Clyfford Still refined his process and developed his style. This masterly traditional self-portrait shows just how skilled he was as a painter: 


And perhaps that is one thing to learn from the work and life of Clyfford Still; after building skills, the creative journey includes refining, editing, and expanding on ideas to find an authentic, unique voice. 

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