I considered slotting in a visit to the Denver Art Museum while I was in town, but because of timing constraints, I opted to go to the smaller Clyfford Still Museum next door instead. As you probably already concluded from the name, the Clyfford Still Museum is dedicated to showcasing the works of artist Clyfford Still.

I’ve been to a decent number of art museums before, and I imagine that my impressions might be derived from the fact that I don’t particularly have a creative or artistic eye, but I always found abstract art to be a bit funny, in that I’m never really able to distinguish what was drawn by a famous artist and what was drawn by a kindergartner.

What I found amusing about this artist was that he seemed to have the same opinions. According to some of the plaques describing his art, Still also challenged where the line is between art and a canvas merely being dunked in paint, i.e., at what point art becomes art. What I found especially interesting was the fact that Still seemed to have started with drawing distinguishable art, but as he grew older, his art got more and more abstract to the point where some of his latest works are just a single solid color.

Here are some photographs of the exhibits:

The museum also had some displays that gave background on Clyfford Still. Because the entire building was dedicated to showcasting Still’s work, I think these informative, text-heavy sections actually served a good purpose tying everything together and telling a cohesive story of his life.

Although I wasn’t able to see it directly, I snapped a picture through some glass of a storage area where they keep Still’s work that is not in the current public rotation.

Conforming to the theme of challenging what makes art art, there was a small section on the upper floor where museum guests could create their own art using any of the tools and materials provided. I liked this because this encouraged people to have a more hands-on exploratory experience and immediately apply into practice what they observed on the exhibition floor.

Some people left behind their creations to share with future museum attendees. My favorite was this kid’s poem: A very fat chicken that has ate to much corn. necklace

The museum had two outdoor sections that, if I remember correctly, were designed by the architect of the actual building. The gardens on display were a bit dead, which is reasonable, considering that it is winter in Denver.

Here is a view of the outside of the museum. There were some nice lights strewn across the trees as holiday decorations.

I enjoyed my time visiting this museum. It felt small enough that it was easily digestible by someone who might not be an art enthusiast. I usually leave art museums feeling like I just looked at a ton of different paintings and sculptures of all different kinds, but I left the Clyfford Still Museum feeling like I got told a complete and thorough story about an artist.