Artists are constantly forgotten and resurrected, assessed and reassessed, interpreted and reinterpreted as part of the natural ebb and flow of art historical scholarship.
Such scrutiny is particularly needed in the still largely unmapped world of 20th century Colorado art, where hierarchies have never been firmly established and some worthy artists have been unfairly forgotten.
To help clarify the state’s rich modern art history, several galleries and institutions have undertaken ambitious overview exhibitions in recent months as well as career reevaluations in the past 1 1/2 years of such artists as Frank Mechau, William Sanderson and Ruth Todd.
The latest Colorado artist to receive such attention is Frank Vavra, who along with his wife, Kathleen, and his daughter, Diana, are featured in “Vavra Triptych: The Artistry of Two Generations,” continuing through Sept. 10 at the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art.
With 69 paintings, drawings, prints and decorative objects from 14 private and public collections, including the Kirkland’s growing Colorado holdings, this engaging show offers a well-researched, in-depth look at what has to be one of the most talented families in the state’s art history.
Included are 14 works by Diana (1938- ), an adroit if little-known printmaker who studied with Richard Diebenkorn and George Miyasaki at the prestigious California College of Arts and Crafts in 1957-61, and 22 selections by Kathleen (1906-1984).
The latter produced a series of drawings and skillful watercolors, such as “Along the Track” (1936), which were very much in the then-prevalent spirit of the American Scene movement. In the mid-’40s, she shifted to fashion illustration, and several strong examples are on view.
Rounding out her section is the “Apocalypse Triptych,” a fascinating artistic outburst in the early 1950s that she would never repeat. Her only foray into abstraction, these intense, gestural gouaches deliver the emotional punch their subject matter demands.
While Kathleen and Diana deserve the attention they receive, the exhibition’s main focus is rightly centered on Frank (1892-1967), the most widely known and accomplished member of the family.
With 33 of his works – including 23 paintings and a striking three-panel, pink screen from the mid-1950s – this is the most comprehensive look at this artist since his last solo exhibition at the Denver Art Museum in 1945.
Vavra was born in St. Paul, Neb., and moved with his parents to Cheyenne when he was 8. He enlisted in World War I in 1917 and was gassed in the Argonne Forest of France in 1918, and the lingering nerve damage would play a factor later in his death.
During his recovery in southern France, he met and studied with a student of famed impressionist Claude Monet, an encounter that revived his childhood interest in art and fueled his desire to make it his career.
He returned to Cheyenne in 1919 and four years later moved to Denver to enroll in the Corey Art School. After meeting noted Denver painter John Thompson, he shifted to the Denver Art Academy, where he studied in 1924-26 with such noted teachers as impressionist Robert Alexander Graham.
Although Vavra has yet to receive the recognition he deserves nationally from scholars more focused on New York and New England, he is best known as an impressionist. The pieces in that style sold best during his career and continue to be favorites with collectors.
This exhibition includes several good examples, including the lovely 30-by-36-inch “Up Red Canon, Rabbit Ear Range (Colorado)” (ca. 1925), but it seeks to offer a broader look at this multifaceted artist.
It begins with his early realist works, which are surprisingly strong, especially “Topsy-Turvy (at Cheyenne, Wyoming’s Frontier Days)” (1930s), with its wonderfully skewed perspectives, and “Santa Fe Hills” (ca. 1940), and then lays out the progression to abstraction.
Vavra’s move toward nonobjective art in the late 1940s, beginning with semi-abstracted land and cityscapes, such as the segmented “Colorado Mountain Town” (late 1940s), was a courageous one given his success with impressionism.
His approach evolved through several stages, ending with eight abstractions in the 1960s that have echoes of the Taos modernists. On view are two of these striking works, including “The World Turns” (1963), with its undulating bands of color suggesting elements of an autumn landscape.
Although Vavra is certainly known among connoisseurs of Colorado art, especially area collectors of American impressionism, his general recognition has dropped significantly in the nearly 40 years since his death.
He deserves to be reconsidered and accorded his proper place in the state’s art history. Although never a major innovator, this overdue exhibition makes clear he was a first-rate artist attuned to everything happening in the larger art world.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
| “Vavra Triptych: The Artistry of Two Generations”
ART EXHIBIT|Exhibition of artworks by Frank Vavra, Kathleen Vavra and Diana Vavra (Strong)|Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, 1311 Pearl St.|$6; $5 students, teachers and seniors|1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays; through Sept. 10; 303-832-8576 or kirklandmuseum.org
