Clyfford Still’s two daughters were all smiles Thursday as they discussed Denver and the city’s fast-developing museum that will house about 90 percent of the famed abstract expressionist’s output.
“The enthusiasm and the spirit and the commitment is just mind-boggling, because for 25 years, Dad’s work has been stagnant, hidden, and a whole generation has grown up not knowing who this man is,” said Diane Still Knox, 67, of Walnut Creek, Calif.
The privately funded museum, with an expected cost of $7 million to $10 million, will be built across from the Denver Art Museum’s new wing on the east side of Bannock Street between 12th and 13th avenues. An architect is expected to be chosen this year.
Still (1904-1980) was a central figure – along with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman – in the 1940s and 1950s development of abstract expressionism.
After their stepmother, Patricia Still, became ill in January 2005, the daughters, who grew up with works by their father hanging in their bedrooms, took over responsibility for his estate.
“We decided it was time to step up to the plate and make sure that someone who knew him, really knew him, could speak up a bit and not to interfere but to help,” said the other daughter, Sandra Still Campbell, 64, of Gold Canyon, Ariz.
As lifetime trustees of the Still museum, they regularly visit Denver to take part in planning.
“This is our second home now,” Knox said with a laugh.
In 2004, Patricia Still agreed to donate her husband’s holdings to Denver – more than 2,100 paintings and works on paper.
When she died last year, the museum received a bequest of 400 more works plus the artist’s archives.
Although Clyfford Still never had any involvement with Denver, his two daughters said it is a suitable home for his art. Their father spent considerable time in the West, including parts of his childhood in Spokane, Wash., and Alberta, Canada.
“He was considered the American painter, the one of all that group that was not embedded in the European art of Paris,” Campbell said.
“He liberated the artists and brought in an American spirit,” she said, “so it was easy for us to say, ‘Why not Denver, right in the heart of the country that he loved so much?”‘
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
