COLLECTION

In the early 1950s, Clyfford Still ended his relationship with the prestigious Betty Parsons and Sidney Janis galleries in New York, and from that time forward, represented himself. Very few paintings entered the art market and subsequently the museum will house over 94% of the artist’s total output. The Clyfford Still Estate contains approximately 825 paintings and 1575 works on paper including: 100 paintings dating from 1920 - 1943: Still's student years, Depression-era works, Surrealist-inspired works, and first forays into abstraction. 350 paintings dating from 1944 - 1960: Still's "breakthrough period" and the years of "high" Abstract Expressionism. Many canvases span over ten-by-fourteen feet. 375 paintings dating from 1961 - 1979: later works, most of which have never been exhibited. 1575 works on paper spanning all aspects of Still's career in such media as pastel, crayon, charcoal, gouache, tempera, graphite, and pen and ink. Few of these have ever been exhibited. In addition to the artworks, the museum is also home to the artist’s archives of letters, sketchbooks, manuscripts, photo albums and personal effects, most of which has never been seen by the public. The Still Museum’s rotating exhibition program, drawn exclusively from the museum’s extensive collection, illuminates this important period of American art history. The Still Museum also plans to work with the Denver Art Museum and neighboring institutions in the development of joint programming that will further contextualize and complement the collection.

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