Colorado’s Capitol is routinely in the news because of the people who work there – legislators, the governor and other elected officials making laws and other important policies.
Recently, though, the grand old building itself has been a newsmaker.
One news item is the happy return of public access to the Capitol’s dome. The other is the likely forced return, not so happy, of one of the Capitol’s presidential portraits.
Both events are burdened with bureaucracy.
Until the dome closed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, anyone could climb the 99 steps to the observation deck unaccompanied by a guide. There was a pleasant person waiting at the top to show you around.
Inside, there’s a dizzying view down to the Grand Staircase on the first floor. Outside is a spectacular view of downtown Denver and the Front Range.
But now that it’s reopened no one can tour the dome unattended. There will be hourly tours, by reservation only, and tour groups are limited to 30 people.
The bureaucracy of dome visitation, however, is nothing compared with the bureaucracy of presidential portraiture. Former state Sen. Hugh Fowler has called it “curatorial terrorism.”
Last August, the Clinton Presidential Library demanded that the state turn over its portrait of President Bill, a move that would break up the Capitol rotunda’s complete set of 43 presidential portraits.
Exactly why Colorado came to possess a complete set is a puzzle, since neither artist nor donors are particularly tied to the state. The artist is Lawrence Williams, who was born in Massachusetts and opened his first gallery in Boston. His portraits of Presidents Washington through Carter were donated to the state in 1979 by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Sullivan of Phoenix. The paintings toured schools until 1982, when they were hung in the third-floor rotunda.
They are high art only in the sense that they are on the third floor. They have a comfortable and uniform style, illustrative and educational. Fowler, who is chairman of the Capitol Building Advisory Committee, calls them “nice,” although “marginally appropriate to a state Capitol – I’m still a Federalist.”
(Fowler has been working toward a spiffier Capitol ever since he was elected in 1968. One of the Littleton Republican’s first campaigns was to have the interior repainted in brighter colors. As designated spokesman for the press corps, I was asked to write a letter expressing a preference for one of the Fowler-vetted pigments offered as choices for our corner of the Capitol. Anything would be better than the existing institutional green, I replied; “there is no hue fouler.”)
Williams, who died in 2003 at age 90, also painted the Capitol’s portraits of Presidents Reagan and both Bushes, which were either donated or bought by the state. But Williams donated the Clinton portrait to the White House. Another former senator, Doug Linkhart, got the National Archives to agree to loan it to Colorado.
But now, as former Gov. Roy Romer once famously said, “the sofa is at the door.” The folks in Little Rock are calling in the loan.
Rep. Paul Weissmann, R-Louisville, has gotten the state’s congressional delegation on the case, harrumphing sternly at all involved. But Fowler’s committee also is preparing for what seems inevitable – having to return the Clinton portrait – by looking at alternatives such as having a high-tone textured copy made (it’s called giclée). Fowler himself keeps saying things like, “A nice $1.85 copy from Kinko’s would look the same as the giclee once it’s under glass – and we could quit worrying about it.”
Sometimes it’s hard to tell when he’s kidding.
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a political analyst for 9News.
