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Some of the public collections of Denver, Colorado, are featured in
this, the millennium's final installation of Twentieth Century American
Sculpture in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. The renaissance of public art
in Denver has been largely motivated by our three-term mayor, Wellington
E. Webb, and his wife, Wilma. During the mayor's tenure, the city has
commissioned a number of large public art projects, and the Denver Art
Museum has acquired a number of major works to enliven the grounds of the
Civic Center Cultural Complex. We have been fortunate to be able to round
out our selection with works drawn from the collection of the Ginny
Williams Family Foundation and the Museum of Outdoor Arts. The ensemble
gives a rich cross section of some of the major trends that have shaped
twentieth-century American sculpture.
We selected The View from Denver as our theme for this exhibition because
we wanted our choices to reflect where and who we are and where we look to
mine the artistic wealth that enhances our community. Living as we do,
almost in the center of the country with the nearest city of equal or
greater size over eight hundred miles away, the view from Denver is vast
and inspires us to look in every direction to acquire our works of art.
Closest to home, Denver artist Robert Mangold created the whimsical
Windsong III, a sculpture that catches the intense Denver winds,
sometimes
spinning so fast its polychrome funnels become a blur. Deborah
Butterfield lives north of us, in Montana, and Willy, Argus, and
Lucky,
the three bronze horses we commissioned from her, symbolize for some the
very essence of life in this part of the country. Living south of us in
New Mexico is Hopi artist Preston Duwyenie, whose Cloud Stone
reinterprets
a myth of his tribe depicting the union of Mother Earth and Father Sky. A
look west to the San Francisco Bay Area connects us to the long tradition
of figurative work exemplified in Manuel Neri's untitled work. While
living in New York, Los Angeles-born Isamu Noguchi created
Remembrance out
of wood in 1945. Later cast in bronze, its sensuous forms
contrast sharply to Icarus, an early, exquisitely emotional work by
Chicago resident and internationally acclaimed artist Richard Hunt.
Looking east beyond Chicago brings us to the kinetic sculptural forms
invented by George Rickey and Harry Bertoia. Other artists who live in or
around New York and who have also helped shape the international dialogue
surrounding twentieth-century sculpture include Louise Bourgeois,
Ellsworth Kelly, Claes Oldenburg, and Isaac Witkin. All of these artists
have enhanced the view from Denver, and we are pleased to be able to share
their works with our fellow citizens.
In closing, I would like to thank First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for
her continuing interest in public art and for her support of these White
House installations. I would like to acknowledge the support of Betty
Monkman of the White House staff and to thank Michael Johnson of the
Denver Art Museum for his intelligent oversight of the project. I am also
grateful to the three curators of this installation: Cynthia Madden
Leitner of the Museum of Outdoor Arts, Dianne Perry Vanderlip of the
Denver Art Museum, and Ginny Williams.
Lewis I. Sharp
Director
The Denver Art Museum
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