Still Museum opening soon

Clyfford Still Museum North Elevation

Photo by Jeremy Bittermann/courtesy Clyfford Still Museum

UPDATED POST ARTICLE:
Museum opening may shed new light on Clyfford Still

To much anticipation, the Clyfford Still Museum is slated to open to the public next Friday November 18th.  This will be the first time that many of Still's works will be seen by more than just his family, friends and curators.  And the press has lit up with excitement...


TIME magazine has a wonderful summary of how the museum came to be, and a enticing description of the natural light in the gallery spaces.


Architectural Record has a short article on Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture giving his first impressions of the nearly complete Clyfford Still Museum construction.  Cloepfil won the commission in a 2006 shortlisted competition entry over DS + R and Ohlson DuBois Architects.

“Wow,” he says. “It’s like seeing it for the first time. It’s done. It’s real. This is probably the first time in my career that a building is more than I imagined. Everything is better than I hoped for...
“Denver, contrary to what some people think, is a prairie town,” Cloepfil says. Pointing to the west, he says, “The mountains are way over there. I wanted this building to be grounded, part of the earth. This is a neighborhood with very aspirational, very bombastic, very extroverted buildings, and this is a very introverted project.” Cloepfil has said that he conceived of the building “as a nearly geologic experience, one that firmly holds both visitor and art in spaces amplified by natural light.”

A recent development in how the museum will continue to live on is yet another impressive chapter in the legacy of Clyfford Still.  To help pay for the museum and establish an endowment for the new building's operations, 4 of Still's paintings were sold for  more than $114 Million at Sotheby's auction house.  Absolutely staggering.


See a video from the Denver Post with a preview glimpse of the new galleries:

See a photo gallery of the art installation preparations here.

 Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post

Exterior Concrete Texture, Courtesy Allied Works Architecture