Major art collectors in the Denver-Boulder area might not have the historical pedigree of those in Boston or the society clout of those in Houston, but they more than hold their own when it comes to the quality of their holdings.
Just consider, for example, that three of the top seven or so private collections of Western art in the United States can be found in Denver, according to Thomas Smith, director of the Denver Art Museum’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art.
Denver investor Philip Anschutz, for example, owns what experts consider to the be most comprehensive Western collection in private hands, and energy investment banker Thomas Petrie has assembled an in-depth look at famed cowboy artist Charles M. Russell.
“Certainly, when we’re doing exhibitions and we’re out looking for loans and trying to track down important pictures, the frequency that Denver comes up is much higher than somewhere like Dallas,” Smith said.
But collectors here hardly restrict themselves to Western art. They pursue everything from contemporary Russian paintings to Spanish colonial art to historical Chinese scroll paintings.
Christoph Heinrich, director of the Denver Art Museum and former curator of modern and contemporary art, estimates there are 10 to 20 “engaged, passionate collectors” of top-drawer contemporary art in the region.
“Some of them we have connections with, and some of them I don’t have the slightest idea who they are or where they live,” he said.
Unlike collectors in many other cities, those here tend to be quieter about their pursuits, putting together high-level groups of paintings and sculptures that are often known more to art-world insiders than the general public in Denver and Boulder.
“It’s a funny place. We’re behind doors with our collections,” said John Grant, an art consultant and former director of Denver’s public art program.
Even Mark Addison, whose acquisitions in the realm of video and electronic art anchored “Blink!,” the Denver Art Museum’s exhibition of such work earlier this year, was surprised by some of the names that have popped up in conversations lately, particularly those that anchored the recently closed “Points of view” at the University of Colorado at Boulder Art Museum.
“The Harbaughs?” he said. “Wayne Yakes? I think there are collectors that are out there that I don’t know. Clearly the world is bigger than I knew.”
Though many East Coast and Midwestern cities have family collecting dynasties that stretch back several generations, the pursuit is still comparatively new in Denver and Boulder.
Much of that can be attributed to the relative youth of the two cities, as well as their principal museums. Consider that the Denver Art Museum didn’t move into the first of its current buildings until 1971 and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver’s first dedicated home opened just four years ago.
“I feel Denver is really a rising star in many respects,” Heinrich said.
Some collectors, like Frederick (who died in 2007) and Jan Mayer, have lived in the Denver-Boulder area for decades. Their purchases of pre-Columbian art from Costa Rica and Mexican colonial art anchor the Denver Art Museum’s stellar holdings in those areas.
New arrivals
But others have arrived more recently, and the artworks they brought with them have immediately boosted the scene. A good example are longtime New Yorkers David and Annette Raddock, collectors of modest-scale works on paper by such notable American artists as Milton Avery and Joan Mitchell. They moved to Boulder five years ago.
“They surround themselves with absolutely magnificent pieces,” Becker said. “So, it’s not just any work on paper by a given artist, but they pick very excellent ones, which have an incredible dialogue with each other.”
An especially big boost to the scene came with the arrival of Kent and Vicki Logan of Vail, who now split their time between Colorado and Phoenix. They have pledged a significant portion of their international contemporary art collection to the Denver Art Museum.
Highlights of their acquisitions were showcased in “RADAR,” the largest and most prominent of the temporary exhibitions on view when the Denver Art Museum opened the Hamilton Building in 2006.
“That made a difference when Kent showed up in Colorado,” Addison said. “I think it stepped everyone up a notch or two or even maybe more.”
According to Grant, something similar happened during the fundraising and construction of the MCA Denver’s building, as key backers, such as Denver developer Mark Falcone and his wife, Ellen Bruss, upped their level of collecting at the same time.
While the Denver-Boulder collecting scene has factors working in its favor, including a diversified business climate with strong, successful entrepreneurs like Anschutz, its weak commercial gallery scene has long been a disadvantage.
“We don’t have a nationally strong (commercial) gallery or two or three,” Addison said. “Seattle, which is a comparable town in many ways, has a couple at least which show national art regularly.
“If I want to see national art, I go to New York, L.A., San Francisco or wherever, but not here.”
A notable exception is the little-known Sloane Gallery, 1612 17th St., which was founded by Mina Litinsky in 1981. It specializes in Russian contemporary art and helped set Denver neurosurgeon Wayne Yakes — one of the collectors featured at the CU Art Museum — on the path of acquiring such work.
Their names might not always be well- known and they might not have a long family history in the field, but Denver and Boulder’s collectors are quietly amassing a rich diversity of artworks that stack up well against those in private hands in any similarly sized city in the country.
