Bill Lujan saw an Alexander Calder sculpture exhibit in Chicago when he was a kid. The Albuquerque-based vintage furniture dealer has been hooked on modernism ever since.
Speaking recently from “the road” in New Mexico where he and his wife, Tanya, had just finished inspecting a storage unit full of possible resale bounty, Lujan said the summer buzz has been about one vintage event in particular: the Denver Modernism Show.
Colorado’s first official midcentury modern love-fest unfolds Friday and Saturday at Capsule Event Center, 560 Santa Fe Drive. The event, which promises a wealth of furniture, lighting, artwork, jewelry and other collectibles from the 1940s through the 1970s, is intended to unite an exploding yet disjointed community of vintage-furniture enthusiasts.
Lujan is one of 30 vendors in a show that generated interest from nearly twice that many. He deems the rise of interest in modernism – likely driven by the popularity of loft and urban living – as a mixed blessing.
“(Modernism) is definitely coming to the forefront of design,” Lujan said. “On the sad end of that, I’m disappointed with all the reproductions and reissues. It’s ruined the market for some of the original pieces.”
Like the George Nelson Ball Clock. Before Vitra decided to reissue the iconic space age timepiece, originals sold for about $1,200, Lujan says. Now they can be bought for about $300. Ditto for the George Nelson Bubble Lamp.
Lujan says the response from serious collectors to new production of throwback furnishings has been to move toward acquiring studio pieces, that is, one- time pieces from famous midcentury designers, artists and architects such as George Nakashima.
Some of those finds will show up at the Denver Modernism Show, along with great pieces from other vendors like Nick Horvath, a midcentury furniture and decorative arts dealer in Denver. He says not only will prices be more reasonable than modernist shopping on the coasts, but events like this show provide great education.
“The majority of people who come will already be familiar with modernism,” Horvath says. “But there’ll be people who come because they’re dragged by a friend (and) they may become converts.”
Leave it to a woman who set up her life around collecting and collector’s shows to conceive the Denver Modernism Show, which is located in the Santa Fe Arts District this year but will likely move to a downtown convention space in 2007. Dana Cain was already known as a vintage toy and doll diva. She also recently took over Colorado’s collectible comic book show, and a vintage electronics show.
“There are tons of people in this town who are really interested in modern design,” Cain said, “but there’s no cohesive community.”
Her goal is to get that community “to jell,” which in turn could help root modernism in a part of the country stereotyped as being strictly associated with the Southwestern and Western resort aesthetics.
Cain also will stock a booth at the show. While some of the more cutthroat vendors have been secretive about exactly what they’ll bring to their booths, Cain conceded that two orange oval chairs might inspire her to do her entire vignette in orange – a color she associates with the height of 1960s kitsch. Color-scheming her booth also falls in line with what Cain hopes the public will take about from the Denver Modernism Show.
“Modernism is art,” she says. “It’s not just something you sit in.”
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
