Current Loans
Wright Place, Wrong Time: Triumphs and Flops on the Mid-Century Modern Table
Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities
6901 Wadsworth Boulevard
September 12–November 10, 2024
Russel Wright’s American Modern dinnerware line is the best-selling ceramic service of all time. But not every pattern Wright designed was so successful. Explore the hits and misses of this superstar designer as well as patterns by a few of his famous contemporaries: Eva Zeisel, Ben Seibel, and Charles Murphy. Test your knowledge and guess which designs were successful and which ones may have been ahead of their time. This dinnerware is on loan from the world-class decorative art collection of Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Denver, which features examples from every major design movement from 1860 to 1990.
Guest Curator: Becca Goodrum
Gio Ponti: Designer of a Thousand Talents
Denver Art Museum
October 24, 2021–January 1, 2025
This exhibition is one of the inaugural exhibitions in the Martin Building’s new design galleries, showcasing objects from the museum’s architecture and design collection and highlighting the work of Gio Ponti (1891–1979), one of the most inventive Italian architects and designers of his time.
Kirkland Museum is loaning furniture and ceramic pieces from its International Decorative Art collection, including a chair from the Pallazzo per Uffici Montecatini.
Kirkland Museum as a Lending Institution
Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art’s collections of over 30,000 works are attractive to other prestigious institutions locally, nationally and internationally. Loaning, publishing and exhibiting are three ways Kirkland Museum gains exposure for Colorado art and international decorative art. Sharing our works exposes the richness and breadth of the Museum’s three collections to new audiences.
Loans have been an important part of Kirkland Museum’s mission since before the institution opened to the public in 2003, and continuing now. Kirkland Museum’s Founding Director & Curator Hugh Grant began curating exhibitions for Vance Kirkland (1904–1981) in 1976. Many organizations have borrowed several times from Kirkland Museum. Mr. Grant and the Museum have loaned to around 100 institutions including:
- Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
- Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, Oklahoma
- Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
- Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
- The Wolfsonian, Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida
European Tour
From April 24, 1997 through February 25, 2000, selections of Vance Kirkland paintings traveled to 13 institutions (11 museums and 2 exhibition halls) in 10 European countries, organized by Hugh Grant. All 5 of Kirkland’s painting periods were represented in all 13 exhibitions, demonstrating the strength of his entire career. 11 of the 13 exhibitions were accompanied by a published catalog. The exhibitions at the Kiscelli Múzeum in Budapest, Museum of Modern Art in Vienna and National Museum of Art, Lithuania were the first all-American artist exhibitions to be held at those institutions.
- Kiscelli Múzeum (Fóvárosi Képtár), Budapest, Hungary
April 24–June 1, 1997 - Museum of Modern Art (Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien), Vienna, Austria
July 4–September 15, 1997
Exhibition from the Denver Art Museum including 43 paintings by Vance Kirkland. - The State Gallery of Poland (Państwowa Galeria Sztuki), Sopot, Poland
October 3–27, 1997 - National Museum of Art (Nacionalinis M.K. Čiurlionio Dailès Muziejus), Lithuania, Kaunas
November 14, 1997–January 11, 1998 - Latvian Foreign Art Museum (Latvijas Ārzemju Mākslas Muzejs), Riga, Latvia
January 23–February 28, 1998 - The Czech Museum of Fine Arts (České Muzeum Výtvarných Umění), Prague, Czech Republic
March 25–May 17, 1998 - Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
June 16–August 2, 1998 - National Museum in Warsaw (Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), Warsaw, Poland
November 27, 1998–January 31, 1999 - Sala Parpalló, in the Museum Complex of València, Spain
May 4–June 13, 1999 - Museum of Fine Arts (Szépmüvészeti Múzeum), Budapest, Hungary
May 18, 1999–February 2000 - Stadtmuseum, Düsseldorf, Germany
July 3–August 22, 1999 - Fondazione Mudima, Milan, Italy
September 6–October 7, 1999 - The State Russian Museum, The Marble Palace, St. Peterburg, Russia
January 20–February 25, 2000