The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art

Here's Vance Kirkland in front of one of his Dot Paintings (http://www.kirklandmuseum.org/)

Vance Kirkland hung from the ceiling to paint his Dot Paintings in what he called his "reverse Michelangelo" position. He collected Colorado art and decorative art. He said, "If I am going to eat off of something, drink out of something, or sit in something, it is going to be great design. His museum features all of these collections plus his painting studio which makes it part of the Historic Artists' Homes and Studios program. We found the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art on a corner in the Capital District of Denver, the same neighborhood where we toured the Molly Brown House.

Children are not allowed in the museum because most of the art and decorative items are just out on display, mostly in vignettes. Kirkland liked to collect chairs and there are many chairs of many styles not available to sit in. Photography is allowed in the museum, without flash. I didn't take any because I was preoccupied by just looking at all this great stuff. Take a look at Travel Gal's blog here or the museum's site linked  above for some remarkable professional shots. You should know that most of the museum's decorative art and Colorado Art was added since Kirkland's death in keeping with his appreciation and philosophy of each.

Vance Kirkland (1904-1981)

Vance Kirkland was born in Convoy, Ohio, and came to Denver to teach art and direct the School of Art at the University of Denver. This did not go as planned, and he left the university to found his own Kirkland School of Art in the front part of the building that is now the museum. His art school was accredited by the University of Colorado, and eventually, in 1946, the University of Denver convinced him to come back to direct the School of Art again. He continued to use his studio, now part of the museum, until his death in 1981.

Kirkland's art fits nicely into five periods:

• Designed Realism
• Surrealism
• Hard Edge Abstraction
• Abstract Expressionism
• The Dot Paintings

He started painting with watercolor, but began combining water and oil paints midway through his career. In that last period he began adding dots of varying sizes to the paintings as in the portrait above. The dowels he used to meticulously add the dots to the paintings are still in his preserved studio along with the straps hanging from the ceiling. In order to paint those dots just right and prevent them from dripping, he had to hover over the canvas, suspended by those straps.

After perusing the literature I picked up at the museum, I learned that Kirkland was synesthetic, meaning he associated specific colors with certain pitches. In other words, he could hear color! He used as inspiration My favorite Twentieth Century composers: Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Ives, Ravel, Debussy, and Bartók. This concept begs for more exploration, so please excuse me while I go consult my library...