This summer has been a bonanza for fans of Colorado art, with four major exhibitions offering complementary surveys of different facets of the state’s visual scene from the 19th century through the present.
The latest, “Colorado Modernism: 1930-1970,” which continues through Sept. 3 at the Foothills Art Center in Golden, examines four decades of abstraction, with most of the works produced after World War II.
Although the show includes three outdoor sculptures by Robert Mangold and a handful of original prints, the overwhelming majority of the 63 selections are paintings.
Included in a subsidiary gallery are 31 mostly color images by James Milmoe, one of six Denver photographers featured earlier this year in “Early Colorado Contemporary Photography” at Gallery Sink.
Most of the works are on loan from the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and Kirkland Museum – the two most important public repositories of historic Colorado art – and four private collections, including that of guest curator Tracy Felix.
What becomes quickly clear is that Colorado boasted a thriving abstract scene during these four decades. If only a few of these artists, such as Vance Kirkland, had any significant impact on the art world at large, many others were nonetheless producing interesting, well-executed works.
This era in the state’s art history deserves to be more widely known. This show, like a similar one at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in 1999, certainly helps, but more research and critical reassessment are needed.
Felix, a noted Lakewood artist who has collected Colorado art since 1977, said his focus was less scholarly and more aesthetic. Artist biographies are available at the front desk, but otherwise viewers are left to draw their own conclusions.
“I wanted to show more or less the beauty of the art in Colorado in this abstract period,” he said. “It is just kind of a slice out of the middle of the 20th century that I love.”
“Colorado Modernism” is as notable for what it does not include, raising questions that perhaps future exhibitions might be able to answer about what else was happening in Colorado during this time.
Other than perhaps “Untitled” (ca. 1930s) by Lila McQueary, no geometric abstractions are included. There are also no hard-edge abstractions, color-field paintings or works that follow in the minimalist vein of either Ellsworth Kelly or Agnes Martin.
At least a few Colorado artists undoubtedly did work in these various sub-categories of abstraction. But Felix chose to emphasize abstract-expressionism, clearly the dominant post-WWII approach, and threw in a few other styles, such as the cubism of Charles Bunnell.
Kirkland certainly gets his due, with a revealing selection of works that show him at his best, especially the sublime dot painting, “Vibrations of Two Blues, Green and Violet on Yellow 1970.” A bonus: It’s probably the only work in the show with an op-art dimension.
Herbert Bayer, another key Colorado modernist, is not so well represented. The exhibition does not include any of his major paintings, though two minor pieces on paper offer a taste of what the one-time Bauhaus artist’s work was like.
Works by William Sanderson have made a particularly strong impression in several recent exhibitions, and the two here, especially “Autumn Fantasy” (1970), are standouts. Earlier this year, the Kirkland Museum presented a survey of his output, but an even more in-depth examination seems
in order.
Along with recognizable names like Bayer, Kirkland and Bunnell are many artists who fell into obscurity, such as Nadine Drummond (1912-1966), a Trinidad native who studied under noted painter Boardman Robinson at Colorado College.
This artist, who appears to deserve further study, is represented by “Burn Out” (ca. 1950s), a thickly painted oil on canvas with a dense, eye-catching composition of jostling blacks and browns.
Other highlights include: Edward Marecak’s “Willie” (1965), a stylized landscape with a full spectrum of colors; Watson Bidwell’s “Autumn Allegro” (1961), with its central burst of oranges and reds, and George Cecil Carter’s bold “Untitled” (ca. 1945).
“Colorado Modernism” does what all good art shows should do: whet the appetite for more.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“Colorado Modernism: 1930-1970”
THROUGH SEPT. 3|Exhibition of Colorado abstraction|Foothills Art Center, 809 15th St.|$3| $2 seniors and free for members|10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays; 303-279-3922 or foothillsartcenter.org
