Gerald S. Cross, who died Aug. 27 in Longmont at age 69, taught design for more than 30 years at the University of Colorado and secured a reputation as an artist whose steel-and-Plexiglas sculpture still stands near downtown Denver.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Okla., Gerald Stanley Cross graduated from Will Rogers High School and then the Rhode Island School of Design. As a graduate student at Southern Illinois University, he worked for two years as research assistant to R. Buckminster Fuller, architect of the geodesic dome.
Cross moved to Boulder in 1960, when he was hired to teach design at the University of Colorado’s fine arts, architecture and environmental design departments. In 1966, he became head of the design program, and his silkscreen graphic prints were featured in a solo show on campus.
He went on to exhibit his art, best known for the prints that paid homage to the severe mathematics iconic of 1970s minimalist art. A 1970 Denver Post review called his work “immaculately ordered. … His overlapping lines produce exacting geometrical skeins of flat, even color.”
His best-known piece is the abstract ’70s sculpture in a small park near the intersection of Speer Boulevard and West Colfax Avenue. The oxidized steel and blue Plexiglas cubes align in an austere, gravity-defying staircase leading up to nowhere.
“A lovely work of art, very much representative of the minimalist work that came off an age of abstract expressionism,” said Cydney Payton, director and curator of Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art. “Maintaining public works like that over the years is a challenge, but what a great gift to the community.”
Payton was referring to the years when the Cross sculpture fell into neglect, obscured by overgrown foliage and the worse for wear because transients and youths vandalized and climbed on the cubes. About two years ago, when the opening of the expanded Colorado Convention Center brought more attention to public art, the sculpture was repaired and the shrubbery cut back, restoring its visibility.
“It’s still a little rough around the edges,” observed Eliza Castaneda of Centennial, Cross’ daughter. “When we drove by earlier in the week, some homeless people were drying their clothes on it.”
As a professor, Cross advocated hands-on experience. He once arranged for his students to restore a dilapidated historic home in Georgetown, where Cross belonged to the local historical society.
“Instead of using boring lectures and papers to teach his students about historic preservation, Dad’s students got to specify and install the actual improvements to this lovely old home,” Castaneda said.
In addition to Castaneda, survivors include daughter Catherine Cavoto of Denver, brother Jack A. Cross of Las Vegas and four grandchildren.
The family suggests memorial contributions to the Rhode Island School of Design Alumni Association Diversity Scholarship: www.risd.edu/ alum_scholar.cfm.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
