October 18, 2022

KIRKLAND MUSEUM OF FINE & DECORATIVE ARTS

1201 Bannock St, Denver, CO 80204

“Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art is an art museum in Denver, Colorado, United States. The museum houses three principal collections and includes the original studio and art school building of artist Vance Kirkland.” - Wikipedia

I discovered this museum while doing an internet search of things to see in Denver.  I probably would have skipped it, but I saw they were having a special exhibit of Frank Lloyd Wright furniture.  I love Wright and so I put the museum on my itinerary. 

Vance Kirkland (1900-1981) was an artist and educator, spending most of his life in Denver.  During his life he developed five major painting periods and at least 35 series, carried out in about 1200 paintings.  When he died, he willed most of his estate to family friend Hugh Grant (not that Hugh Grant), who had been curating exhibitions for Kirkland.  The estate contained his paintings along with other decorative pieces he had collected.  Grant and his wife, Merle Chambers, became concerned that Colorado fine and decorative art was not being shown in depth in any museum setting, and thus established the Kirkland Museum to showcase Colorado artists. 

Before beginning the tour, you are told about a cellphone app that gives brief descriptions of each room of the tour (it really was helpful).  The first room was dedicated to Kirkland displaying pieces of work from each of his five painting periods.  Next one travels through six galleries are set up “salon style,” meaning the decorative arts (mainly furniture) are displayed around the room with paintings from Colorado artists on the walls, much like a room in a home would be decorated.  Each of the six galleries displayed decorative art pieces from similar time periods, beginning with colonial times up through post modern work.  The paintings in each gallery were arranged by similar styles (not time periods).  The last gallery in the museum is Kirkland’s actual studio, which was moved to this location from where it originally sat in Denver.  Here you see much more of Kirkland’s work.

 I was not familiar with Kirkland’s work before my visit to the museum, but I really like his work and will be looking for more of it as I visit art galleries around the country.  The Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit was small, but showed his unique style in the pieces on display. 

I highly recommend this museum for anyone interested in painting and decorative arts.