Clyford Still Museum
WHAT: RMGA MEETING
WHEN: Monday November 12, 2012.
WHERE: Clyfford Still Museum, 1250 Bannock Street, Denver.
PROGRAM: Dean Sobel, Museum Director, will provide background and context for the work of Clyfford Still and the story of the collection coming to Denver.
PARKING: There is often on-street parking available on Bannock Street in the evening.
The Cultural Complex Parking Garage at 12th Avenue and Broadway is available. The parking garage entrance is on 12th Avenue just west of Broadway. Several convenient RTD bus routes make stops nearby.
Guide Line Review
Clyfford Still Museum
Clyfford Still Museum Lydia Garmaier introduced the Director of the museum, Dean Sobel.
Dean told us that the museum had been open just one year, opening on November 18, 2011. He also gave us some background on how Denver actually was chosen to have the museum. Clyfford Still died in 1980 and his will stipulated that his art would be given to an American city that would agree to build and maintain permanent quarters exclusively for his works of art. This bequest included about 95% of all of his work. Mr. Still was a leader among the abstract expressionists though his contemporaries Jackson Pollock, Rothko and DeKoonig were much better known. A nephew of Still’s second wife lives in Denver, Dr. Kurt Fried, and he asked Wellington Webb (then the Mayor) about Denver housing the collection. The negotiations were completed in 2004 during Mayor Hickenlooper’s term of office. The collection is owned by the city and the building is owned by a non-profit organization. Four pieces were sold to fund and endow the museum – one from 1930, two from the 1940’s and the fourth from 1975. The amount raised was $114 million.
The museum’s main floor houses the conservation studio, complete archives, stored art and also is interactive. The exhibition hall is on the second floor. The second floor lighting is complemented by many skylights.
Approximately 300 of the 800 paintings are stretched and can be viewed. One in ten of these need some repair. About 500 paintings are rolled and not really exhibit able. They were all locked up for about 60 years. After WWII, Mr. Still had an exhibit in New York City and he moved there in 1950. He sold his art when he had to and exhibited when he wanted to.
Clyfford Still was born in 1904 and started working on his art in the 1920’s. In the 1930’s, he depicted the Depression and realism. After WWII, he became and expressionist abstract painter. The first room on the second floor shows a Canadian landscape and somber paintings from the Depression era. His work showed how the Depression affected people and shows an expressive somber mood. Other artists showing this somber mood are Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. There is a 1937 piece that looks at the interior of man. In the 1940’s, he depicted a vertical abstract form of nature (life and the human condition).
In the 1950’s, he painted in increasing scale in abstract expression. Abstract expression involves process and touch, one subject (all-overness), and scale is of importance. America was not important as an art center to the rest of the world’s art until the 1950’s. Mr. Still used ladders to paint these large pieces. Some of the current pieces exhibited are modeled on some of Vincent Van Gogh’s Impressionist work in the late 1800’s. In 1961, he moved to Maryland and in the 1960’s and 1970’s his style changed again.
One gallery contains some of his drawings; there are over 2,000 drawings in the collection as well as the paintings.
-- Nancy Brueggeman