GRAND JUNCTION — Mesa State College says it doesn’t want a $12,300 painting commissioned for the school.
Mesa State president Tim Foster sent a letter to the Colorado Council on the Arts, now called Colorado Creative Industries, saying “Of Stones and Water,” a 10-foot-by-4-foot painting by French artist Christian Quintin, was not what the college wanted and the council could have it back.
Quintin, who lives in Santa Rosa, Calif., won a competition for the commission in 2009 and spent five months painting a whimsical interpretation of the Grand Valley’s rock formations and rivers.
The painting was displayed briefly in the school’s Academic Classroom Building before being placed in storage. It has remained in storage for more than a year.
Quintin told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel it was censorship. In a letter to Colorado Creative Industries sent Feb. 22, 2010, explaining the removal, Foster said the painting “simply is not consistent with nor reflective of the work that Mr. Quintin presented and that the committee chose.”
The painting was funded by the state because by law, 1 percent of state construction budgets must be used for art. The Associated Press
