The Clyfford Still Museum

When Clyfford Still died in 1980, his will stipulated that his entire collection be given to an American city willing to establish a permanent museum dedicated exclusively to the care and display of his art.{{cite news |title=Clyfford Still, Unpacked |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/clyfford-still-unpacked-62913/ |access-date=1 November 2011 |agency=Art in America}} Approximately 20 American cities contended to receive the Still collection.{{cite news |title=Seeing Still for the First Time |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/seeing-still-for-the-first-time-491/ |access-date=5 January 2012 |agency=ARTnews}}

In August 2004, Still's wife, Patricia, chose Denver to receive the collection after then-Mayor John Hickenlooper visited her home and agreed to the will's terms.{{cite news |title=Clyfford Still's Unyielding Will |url=https://www.5280.com/2011/10/clyfford-stills-unyielding-will/ |access-date=1 November 2011 |agency=5280 Magazine |date=1 November 2011}} The artworks contained within the Clyfford Still Estate included roughly 825 paintings on canvas and 2,300 works on paper on various media including pastel, crayon, charcoal, gouache, tempera, graphite, and pen and ink, and fine art prints.

In 2006, the newly formed Clyfford Still Museum secured a parcel of land within Denver's Civic Center Cultural Complex immediately west of the Denver Art Museum’s then-under-construction Frederic C. Hamilton Building, designed by Daniel Libeskind. Later that year, the board selected Allied Works Architecture, led by Brad Cloepfil, for the museum’s design.{{cite news|last=MacMillan|first=Kyle|title=With wraps off the art at new Denver museum, how good is Clyfford Still?|url=http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_19351236?source=pkg|newspaper=The Denver Post|date=18 November 2011}}{{cite news |title=Clyfford Still museum by Frank Greene |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/clyfford-still-museum-by-frank-greene |access-date=22 November 2021 |agency=Architects' Journal}}

The museum broke ground on its new home in December 2009 and opened to the public on November 18, 2011 {{cite news |title=On Site: The Clyfford Still Museum |url=https://www.artforum.com/print/201209/the-clyfford-still-museum-36134 |access-date=1 November 2012 |agency=ARTFORUM |date=1 November 2012}} as a single-artist museum.{{cite news |title=A Place Apart for an Irascible Painter |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324469304578145360772899562 |access-date=5 November 2021 |work=The Wall Street Journal}}

In 2017, the museum launched the [https://luna.clyffordstillmuseum.org/ Online Collection] and Research database.{{cite web |title=Hidden No More: CSM Launches Online Collection and Research Database |url=https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/blog/press-release-online-collection/ |website=Clyfford Still Museum |date=20 September 2017 |access-date=20 September 2017}} More than 2,500 works of art including paintings and works on paper by Clyfford Still are available in high-resolution reproductions in the Online Collection.{{cite news |title=To View Clyfford Still Retrospective, Just Click |work=The New York Times |date=5 September 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/arts/design/clyfford-still-museum.html |access-date=22 November 2021 |agency=The New York Times |last1=Tuchman |first1=Phyllis }}

In 2024, the museum launched the [https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/institute/ Institute Residential Fellowship Program]. {{cite web |title=Committee selects first round of fellows for new Clyfford Still Museum Institute Residential Fellowship Program |url=https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/blog/first-institute-fellows-selected/ |website=Clyfford Still Museum |date=29 April 2024 |access-date=20 September 2017}} The Institute brings artists, educators, and thought leaders to Denver each summer to engage with the museum and its collections. The program is built on three pillars of study: art; education; and social enterprise.

The Clyfford Still Museum collection{{cite news |title=Clyfford Still Unpacked |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/clyfford-still-unpacked-62913/ |access-date=1 November 2011 |agency=Art in America |date=1 November 2011}} includes:

• 130 paintings from 1920–1943: works from Still’s student years, Depression-era works, Surrealist-inspired works, and first forays into abstraction
• 302 paintings from 1944–1960: Still’s “breakthrough period” and the years of “high” Abstract Expressionism
• 350 paintings from 1961 to 1979: works from the final two decades of his life, created in rural Maryland
• 2,300 works on paper spanning all aspects of Still's career in a wide range of media such as pastel, crayon, charcoal, gouache, tempera, graphite, and pen and ink, and fine art prints in a variety of techniques
• 3 carved wood and mixed media sculptures

The museum rotates the Clyfford Still Collection{{cite news |title=The Clyfford Still Museum's Inaugural Exhibition tells the artist's story |url=https://www.westword.com/arts/the-clyfford-still-museums-inaugural-exhibition-tells-the-artists-story-5114579 |access-date=8 November 2011 |agency=Westword |date=8 November 2011}} on average two to three times per year in themed exhibitions.{{cite web |title=Exhibitions |url=https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/exhibitions/ |website=Clyfford Still Exhibitions |access-date=9 March 2021}}

The museum's first exhibition was the Inaugural Exhibition.{{cite news |title=The Clyfford Still Museum's Inaugural Exhibition tells the artist's story |url=https://www.westword.com/arts/the-clyfford-still-museums-inaugural-exhibition-tells-the-artists-story-5114579 |access-date=2 November 2021 |work=Westword |date=8 November 2011}} Other exhibitions include an Artists Select series curated by artists such as Katherine Simóne Reynolds, Roni Horn, Julian Schnabel, and Mark Bradford,{{cite news |title=Roni Horn to Join Julian Schnabel, Mark Bradford in Curating Shows at the Clyfford Still Museum |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/roni-horn-to-join-julian-schnabel-mark-bradford-in-curating-shows-at-the-clyfford-still-museum-6966/ |access-date=5 November 2021 |work=ARTnews}} Daughter's Eye/A Daughter's Voice curated by Sandra Still Campbell,{{cite web |title=The Know |url=https://theknow-old.denverpost.com/2018/12/07/clyfford-still-museum-a-daughters-voice/203603/ |publisher=The Denver Post |access-date=5 November 2021}} and Repeat/Recreate with canvases from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and private collections.{{cite news |title=A Still is a Still is a Still...Still: Clyfford Still's Replicas |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/a-still-is-a-still-is-a-still-still-clyfford-stills-replicas-5393/ |access-date=5 November 2021 |work=ARTnews}} The Museum has also curated two exhibitions with young children, including Clyfford Still, Art, and the Young Mind{{cite news |title=Kids curated the Clyfford Still Museum’s latest exhibit and proved they understand abstract art better than adults |url=https://denverite.com/2022/03/14/kids-curated-the-clyfford-still-museums-latest-exhibit-and-understand-abstract-art-better-than-adults/ |access-date=14 March 2022 |work=Denverite}} in 2022 and “Tell Clyfford I Said ‘Hi’”: An Exhibition Curated by Children of the Colville Confederated Tribes{{cite news |title=Reviving Roots: Clyfford Still Museum and the Colville Confederated Tribes Partner for the Future |url=https://www.aam-us.org/2024/08/12/reviving-roots-clyfford-still-museum-and-the-colville-confederated-tribes-partner-for-the-future/ |access-date=12 August 2024 |work=American Alliance of Museums Center for the Future of Museums Blog}} in 2025.

The Clyfford Still Museum has also loaned out works for exhibitions in the past.{{cite news |title=Rare Loan of Clyfford Still Paintings to Join Royal Academy Show |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/arts/design/rare-loan-of-clyfford-still-paintings-to-join-royal-academy-show.html |access-date=5 November 2021 |work=The New York Times|date=12 April 2016 |last1=Sheets |first1=Hilarie M. }}

==Archives==

The museum also houses the complete Clyfford Still Archives (CSA) of correspondence, sketchbooks, journals, notebooks, the artist's library, photo albums, personal effects, and other archival materials, inherited upon Patricia Still's death in 2005.{{cite news|last1=Kino|first1=Carol|title=Abstract Expressionist Made Whole|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/arts/design/clyfford-still-museum-in-denver.html|access-date=21 October 2014|work=The New York Times|date=17 November 2011}} Still corresponded with many artists, critics, dealers, museum professionals, and collectors of the Abstract Expressionist era such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Clement Greenberg, and Peggy Guggenheim.{{cite web |title=Archives + Library |url=https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/art-artist/archives-library/ |website=Clyfford Still Museum |access-date=5 November 2021}} The archives are open to the public and offer a growing [https://luna.clyffordstillmuseum.org/luna/servlet/CSM~7~7 research database].{{cite news |title=Clyfford Still Archives Team Digitally Releases to Public Clyfford Still's Diary Notes from 1944–1951 |url=https://artdaily.com/news/134126/Clyfford-Still-Archives-team-digitally-releases-to-public-Clyfford-Still-s-diary-notes-from-1944-1951#.YZvH0L3MLX1 |access-date=22 November 2021 |agency=ArtDaily}}

The museum is run by a non-profit organization. A portion of the museum's funding is provided by a 0.1% sales tax levied in the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), which includes seven Colorado counties (Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson) in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area.{{cite web |title=SCFD Tier II Organizations |url=https://scfd.org/organization/ |website=SCFD |access-date=9 March 2021}}

The Clyfford Still Museum hosts monthly recurring programs including meditation, music performances, family artmaking workshops, and guided tours. The museum launched Art Crawl,{{cite news |title=Children and Museums: You Can’t Start Early Enough |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/27/arts/design/museums-childrens-programs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nk0.i8ZY.CkzF6Kt7SXS0&smid=url-share |access-date=27 April 2024 |agency=The New York Times}} a program for infants and their caregivers, in March 2022, and hosts three sessions each month in the galleries. The museum received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2023 to expand Art Crawl to locations outside the museum.{{cite news |title=Clyfford Still Museum receives IMLS award to expand access to Art Crawl infant program |url=https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/blog/imls-art-crawl/ |access-date=17 August 2023 |agency=Clyfford Still Museum blog}}

• Joyce Tsai, director (2021-present)
• Dean Sobel, founding director (2004-2020)
• David Anfam, senior consulting curator (2011-2020) {{cite web |title=David Anfam, Art Historian Who Rewrote the History of Abstract Expressionism, Dies at 69 |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/david-anfam-art-historian-dead-abstract-expressionism-clyfford-still-1234715198/ |website=ARTNews |access-date=23 August 2024}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/ Clyfford Still Museum] Official Website
• [https://luna.clyffordstillmuseum.org/luna/servlet Clyfford Still Online Collection]
• [https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/art-artist/archives-library/ Clyfford Still Archives]

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Category:Museums in Denver

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