Colorado Art Survey VII

April 7, 2012—September 2, 2012; Curator: Hugh Grant

National Significance of the Colorado Collection

Kirkland Museum unveils a new exhibition as it continues to survey the nationally important art history of Colorado.  Our visitors last year—from 37 foreign countries and 49 states—were fascinated to see Colorado art in depth, which they had not seen anywhere else.  Drawing from the museum’s unparalleled and still growing collection of 4,610 works of art by 473 Colorado artists, three of Kirkland Museum’s Colorado art exhibitions have received articles in American Art Review magazine.  The first article in 2006 by New Jersey art professor Carol Cruickshanks stated,

              “The scope of Colorado art is now more widely acknowledged through the curatorial efforts of Hugh Grant and the staff of Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art.  By identifying, researching, acquiring and preserving, and in some cases rediscovering more than two hundred artists, this collection with its accessibility, remains one of the most comprehensive sources of appreciating the growth of the modern movement in America.”

44% Newly Acquired or Not Recently Exhibited

Colorado Art Survey VII features 160 paintings, prints and drawings by 128 artists, of which 51 works (32%) have never been shown at Kirkland Museum and another 20 works (12%) have been off view for over a year or more—all from the permanent collection.  Works in this exhibition date from 1875 to 2006.  Most of the ones not previously shown are new acquisitions in the last seven months, since the last Colorado Art Survey (August 2011—November 2011), indicating our commitment to find and collect as many quality Colorado works as possible. A balanced presentation of painting styles of Colorado art is given with works ranging from Traditional (Realism and Impressionism), to Regionalism, Surrealism, Referential Abstraction and Pure Abstraction.  Kirkland Museum shows virtually no contemporary style art—because several Colorado museums and many galleries specialize in that era—and hence most works are prior to 1980. The ones after 1980 are done in a modern and not contemporary style. 

Our fall exhibition will be a retrospective exhibition of the work of Colorado artist William Joseph.

September 13 - November 11, 2012