When abstract expressionist Clyfford Still passed away, his will stipulated that his entire collection be kept together in one location. That way, visitors could experience his art free from the distractions of the work of other artists.
A tall order, but his vision worked. Today, an estimated 93 percent of Still’s artworks—roughly 830 paintings and 2,300 works on paper and sculpture—make up the collection at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. Thousands of the artist’s personal effects, from letters and sketchbooks to manuscripts and photo albums, are also housed here.
Born in 1904 in Grandin, North Dakota, about 30 miles north of Fargo, Still was considered a contemporary of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and other notable post-war Color Field artists. He painted on massive canvases using large, sweeping brush strokes, to express the many themes of the human condition.
In later years, he spent time teaching in Washington state and San Francisco. In the 1950s, he began showing his work in New York City galleries, eventually being dubbed one of “the Irascibles,” a group of artists staunchly opposed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s juried 1950 modern art exhibition and its contemporary art politics.
Still never named his works; instead, he used an alphanumeric system to identify each artwork, using PH to refer to the order in which the artworks were photographed (not created), among other classifications. PH-247, a massive 117- by 92-inch oil on canvas, called “Big Blue” by visitors, is considered among the most celebrated. He eventually settled in Maryland, where he passed away in 1980.
In 2004, his wife, Patricia, selected Denver over 25 other American cities to receive the collection, and the museum opened in 2011.
The museum’s building itself is also a work of art, spanning 28,500 square feet and blending concrete, crushed granite, and quartz. It was designed by architect Brad Cloepfil with great intentionality to display Still’s work.
