A new museum for Denver... will anyone come?

[giovoni]

Does anyone here have any opinions besides what's readily available on the web of the work and importance of Clifford Still. He is apparently a 20th century artist of high regard who left most of his collection to be displayed in a museum dedicated solely to him with the condition that whatever city got the works would build the museum. Denver has the honor of getting this trove. I understand that he hoarded most of his work and was if not a recluse, at least loathe to interact with critics and others that could have made his work more well known.

 

Also does anyone have thoughts on the idea of dedicating an entire museum to one artist? There are certain artists that I'm sure this would be a more sure success, however I'm not at all sure Still is one of them, especially since part of his will requires that no other artists work be shown with his. It will be difficult for art novices like myself to be able to put him into context with any of his contemporaries because of this condition.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

"Deserve Victory"

[Guest zipperzone]

>Also does anyone have thoughts on the idea of dedicating an

>entire museum to one artist? There are certain artists that

>I'm sure this would be a more sure success, however I'm not at

>all sure Still is one of them, especially since part of his

>will requires that no other artists work be shown with his.

>It will be difficult for art novices like myself to be able to

>put him into context with any of his contemporaries because of

>this condition.

>

>Any thoughts?

 

I personally have never heard of him but that doesn't mean anything. My first thought I had when reading this was "this guy sure had an ego" If I was a taxpayer in Denver I might have an objection or two.

 

Why can't the city aution off enough of his works to pay for a building to house the remainder. They could also probably get the purchasers to loan the pictures back to the museum on a rotating basis.

 

Was the guy really that good - I should do a google search.

[giovoni]

>I personally have never heard of him but that doesn't mean

>anything. My first thought I had when reading this was "this

>guy sure had an ego" If I was a taxpayer in Denver I might

>have an objection or two.

 

One sorta good thing about Colorado is that you can't raise a new tax to pay for anything without an election. I think the plan is to gather private donations for the museum. The figure that they need, and I'm not sure if this is named in the will or just what they arrived at to get his widow to give all this to Denver, is 7.5 million for the building and that much again to start an endowment to run the museum.

 

>Why can't the city aution off enough of his works to pay for a

>building to house the remainder. They could also probably get

>the purchasers to loan the pictures back to the museum on a

>rotating basis.

 

I'm not sure but I imagine that the will must forbid that kind of fund raising. It seems like the rest of his conditions didn't leave room for that sort of 'dividing up my collection' moves. Although, to me that sounds like a damn fine idea. I did read that one work alone has auctioned at around 3 million dollars so it wouldn't take much to raise the money. Of course that might then leave his best works in the hands of private collectors who may be wary of ever letting them back into the museum.

 

 

>Was the guy really that good - I should do a google search.

 

Really good yes that seems to be the consensus.. good enough for his very own museum.. I have no idea. Maybe they can get the museum built very near the new Daniel Libeskind designed addition to the mail art museum and people will be more apt to visit it as a part of a trip to that museum.

 

 

"Deserve Victory"

[Trixie]

It's a little strange that a city would want to build a museum to an artist that never lived there... Would anybody be happy with a Georgia O'Keefe museum in Dover, Delaware?

I have to admit, although I was familiar with the name, I drew a blank with the work. Having poked around the internet, and seen a few pictures, I must admit I would never visit Denver based on such a museum.

I would visit Denver based on Giovoni, but to say such a thing out loud would merely be tacky!

 

 

 

Ooops...

 

Trix

[giovoni]

>It's a little strange that a city would want to build a

>museum to an artist that never lived there... Would anybody be

>happy with a Georgia O'Keefe museum in Dover, Delaware?

 

Good point.. though with all of the other conditions he put in his will I wonder if he didn't hope/expect to be put somewhere where he never lived or had ties.

 

 

>I have to admit, although I was familiar with the name, I drew

>a blank with the work. Having poked around the internet, and

>seen a few pictures, I must admit I would never visit Denver

>based on such a museum.

 

Would you visit based on any one artist? I'm not sure any one museum would get me to go to a certain city.

 

 

>I would visit Denver based on Giovoni, but to say such a thing

>out loud would merely be tacky!

 

naaaaaa it's not tacky ... and I haven't had a good game of 'tickle monster' since I was a wee lad

[Karl-G]

Clyfford Still is very well known in the art world; he is regarded as one of the great masters of abstract expressionism. His works can be found in the greatest art museums in America, such as the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, the Hirschhorn in Washington, D.C., MOMA in NYC, the Art Institute of Chicago, etc.

 

His will has presented problems, however, and his widow has stuck with the letter of the document - separate museum, no other artists, etc. He died some years ago. The result has been that the many paintings in her possession have been kept, as rolled up pieces of canvas, in a warehouse in Seattle, I think. Recent reports in art magazines have said that mildew has attacked a number of the canvases and various kinds of damage are occurring to the canvases; unless something is done soon, many of the canvases will be irreparably ruined. So I think there is a sense of urgency right now to do something.

 

I personally disagree with such a will and stipulations. Would I make a special trip to Denver to see the museum? No. But if I were anywhere in the area, I would certainly make a side trip to see the collection, and Denver is large and important enough to draw lots of people, who might visit the museum while in town. Life is for the living; when you die, that's it. The living should then arrange things. Having all those works in one museum and depriving all the other museums and parts of America and the world of appreciating and enjoying them seems wrong to me. But then the Guggenheim in NYC keeps 1500 Kandinskys and does not share them with other museums, and other museums do similar things. As an aside, but this seems like a moment to say it, it seems wrong to me for a museum to hoard lots of extra paintings, especially by one artist, in storage when they could at least loan these works to other museums and allow people in other parts of the country to enjoy them also. Chicago has so many impressionist and post-impressionist works, they sometimes store them in broom closets, like the multiple paintings of Cezanne's wife which were stolen by a disgruntled janitor. Minneapolis and Detroit, for example, would greatly benefit by being able to show them, and Chicago never shows them anyway.

[Trixie]

Funny... I was thinking about Giovoni's question about whether there's a city I'd visit based on solely on a museum of one artists's work... and I was thinking, I'd probably like to visit Oslo one day, simply to see the bulk of Edvard Munch's work.

I glanced down at the morning paper on my

sofa... Munch's most famous work, The Scream" has been stolen!

 

 

 

Trix