I’ve had a bit of a rough time finding good art in Denver.  So maybe I was spoiled by the Art Institute and the MCA, but is that so wrong?  The Denver Art Museum is just ok – it’s small and really focused on western art, which isn’t really my thing.  I did check out one cool gallery with a friend, but, again, it was really small.  I was looking forward to the Modern Art Museum, but, um, that didn’t turn out so well.  When we attempted to go, they didn’t have any art.  Seriously, there was no art.  I don’t even understand.  (Maybe it’s some kind of meta-commentary on the emptiness and meaninglessness of all attempts to represent life through artistic mediums?  Maybe… But I’m pretty sure they just didn’t have any art.)

But wait!  I finally found some good art!  A brand new Clyfford Still museum just opened.  It’s devoted entirely to his work and it’s wonderful.  For more on the museum and the art, check out my mother-in-law’s wonderful review here.  For my part, I give you: babies and art.

A fair warning: no flash plus moving babies equals blurry shots.  I tried my best, but it’s damn hard to catch these ladies not moving.

Check out those ceilings!  The museum space itself is so perfect for this work – it should be, it was built specifically for it.  Amazing.

The museum is fascinating because it’s arranged chronologically so you really get a sense of the development of his work.  The early work is inspired by his experiences farming and deals with the hard life in the countryside and during the Depression (I didn’t take any pictures of that stuff).  As he matures, his work becomes more and more abstract.  By the end of his life, it has changed completely into something so rare and beautiful as to be literally breathtaking.  Look at this one – it’s almost all blank canvas.  He felt that there was a message in the voids and the blank spaces, a beauty in things left unsaid, or rather, unpainted.  Amazing.