Art of the State

Denver’s already unique Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art, 1311 Pearl Street, took a step in an uncharted direction when its new temporary show, Driven to Abstraction: Colorado Art From 1880 to 2007, debuted earlier this month. Switching from his usual focus on modernistic art, curator Hugh Grant expanded...

By Susan Froyd

December 27, 2007

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Denver’s already unique Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art, 1311 Pearl Street, took a step in an uncharted direction when its new temporary show, Driven to Abstraction: Colorado Art From 1880 to 2007, debuted earlier this month. Switching from his usual focus on modernistic art, curator Hugh Grant expanded his perime-ters to include earlier works in the show, which follows the evolution of Colorado art from early traditionalism through surrealism and referential abstraction to pure ab-straction.

True to form, Grant’s foray is a who’s who of Colorado artists, with highlights weighted toward the traditional but also including an array of 21st-century offerings (the newest being a recent painting by Clark Richert), as well as two Vance Kirkland surrealist works not seen by the public in several years. And, as the museum’s Holly Victor notes, the ma-jority of the exhibition consists of recent acquisitions.

Driven to Abstraction continues through May 4, 2008; for information, call 303-882-8576 or go to www.kirklandmuseum.org.
May 8-June 29, 2008

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

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