The first concept that artist Luis Jimenez proposed for Denver International Airport didn’t make the cut. It was too controversial.
Jimenez wanted to use a multilevel place inside the terminal to depict a scene of American Indians on horseback driving a herd of buffalo over a cliff.
“It was another spectacular page in the story of the peoples of the West,” said Jack Mackie, a Seattle artist who became friends with Jimenez while working for the city troubleshooting the production of artwork commissioned for DIA.
“People felt it might appear cruel to animals,” Mackie recalled. “Luis rolled with that.”
Jimenez returned with a proposal for a 32-foot-tall fiberglass rearing mustang with glowing red eyes to be installed prominently on a knoll outside the airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration nixed this one.
“They said that given how tall it was and how bright the eyes were, it might be mistaken for a runway,” Mackie said.
Jimenez rolled with this one too.
He redesigned the rearing mustang with its head down slightly so that pilots wouldn’t be confused by the bright red eyes. “Luis liked it because with the head turned down, it made the mustang’s feet more powerful,” Mackie said.
Jimenez won the $300,000 commission in 1992, and the city won bragging rights to an audacious pop-Western artwork set to come soon from the renowned sculptor whose striking “Vaquero” stands outside the Smithsonian.
Now, 14 years, a lawsuit, a countersuit and untold frustrations later, the sculpture remains unfinished.
But the life of Luis Jimenez is. He died last week when a piece of “Mustang” fell on him in his New Mexico studio.
“He was working under great pressure,” said his Denver attorney Miles Gersh. “I don’t know how much this stuff weighs, but the piece was huge, so it wouldn’t have taken a very big mistake to turn this thing into a horror.”
Jimenez had missed deadline after deadline for finishing the piece, including the most recent one set for Oct. 15, 2005, by attorneys for the city and the artist, who met to mediate a settlement.
It wasn’t that the artist was a slacker, said Gersh. “He was absolutely intent on finishing it.” But there were problems.
At one point, Jimenez’s eye collapsed. He’d been hit with a BB as a child, and complications required frequent surgeries.
He developed carpal tunnel, which meant more surgery and limited use of his hands for a while.
He also had a heart condition and was embroiled in a contentious divorce, which, at times, meant access to his studio was restricted.
“The city had every right to wonder ‘Where’s the sculpture? Where’s the money? What have we done?”‘ said Mackie. “But this was a genuine cause for him.”
Jimenez had devoted his life to telling the story of the West with a style that was visually engaging and evoked the contemporary Chicano low-rider automobile culture, Mackie said.
He used fiberglass with a hand-rubbed finish “so it appeared you were looking through 3 inches of color.”
He even loved it that people associated his idea for a gorgeous, blue, rearing mustang with the trademark Broncos horse at Invesco Field at Mile High.
“He liked the dynamic there,” Mackie said. Jimenez was eager to experience the public reaction to his work. “It’s just lousy what happened.”
Now, as they grieve over Jimenez’s death, friends and admirers wonder what will become of “Mustang.”
“A lot of things have to be resolved before we can answer that,” Gersh said.
Erin Trapp, director of Denver’s Office of Cultural Affairs, said it’s too soon to know what will become of the long-awaited artwork, but “I anticipate it will work out just fine.”
“Mustang” is passionate, boisterous, larger than life, just like Jimenez was.
“Luis had sort of a headlong style in his life and his art,” said Gersh. “The best testament to him would be to get this done.”
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
