Untitled (Harlequin)
Year c. 1962
Artist Marion Buchan (1895–1971, American)
Media metal
Dimensions 36 1/8 x 38 1/4 x 2 inches
English-born Marion Buchan began her art studies at the Liverpool Art Academy in England. In the U.S., she studied first with Robert Garrison in Denver and then with Alexander Archipenko in New York. She taught drawing and painting at the University of Denver from 1944 to 1958. Buchan worked in plaster, stone, wood, cement and bronze, executing almost exclusively figures. Like most women artists of her time, Buchan struggled to be taken seriously; women artists were often dismissed as dabblers. For Buchan, the problem was made worse by the diversity of her styles, ranging from traditional to Art Deco to abstract. Her modernist use of negative space was frequently too avant-garde for Denver. In one notable case, the Denver Athletic Club (DAC) commissioned one of her sculptures, and then returned it after protests from DAC members. Buchan was a founding member of 15 Colorado Artists, which broke from the more conservative Denver Artists’ Guild in 1948.
ON VIEW in Sculpture Gallery 10
Signature unsigned
Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art; Gift of Holly Buchan
Accession Number 2015.0753
