Clyfford Still

It is truly an understated architectural gem surrounded by much louder, in your face, buildings like Daniel Libeskind’s Hamilton building and Gio Ponti’s North building of the Denver Art Museum campus.

The all concrete predominately windowless structure is a rectangular fortress protecting nearly Clifford Still’s entire collection, a very rare occurrence in the art museum space. Denver is fortunate to have the honor to host such an important collection of art for the purpose of preservation and education.

One of my favorite design characteristics of the building is the way the concrete exterior shell was formed to pay a subtle tribute to Clyfford Still’s abstract expressionist paintings. They used Hem-Fir formwork boards leaving beveled gaps in between resulting in jagged fins as the boards were pulled off resembling Still’s large format paintings when viewed up close.

What a beautiful and simple tribute! It’s the extra step in the design process that illustrates the architect’s thoughtfulness and respect for Clyfford Still.

I admire that.

JC

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