In 2010 Denver will become the home of the new Clyfford Still Museum.  I know many of you are asking, "Who is Clyfford Still?" and I will tell you he's one of America's artistic treasures who helped put American Art on the map.  He was part of a group of artists called the Abstract Expressionists.  This is considered to be the first American art form that offered the world something new.

As I learn more about Clyfford Still I decided to visit the sneak peak exhibition at the Denver Art Museum.  There aren't a lot of pieces but enough to see where he started and how his work morphed into the style he would spend working in the rest of his life.  What intrigues me is the company he kept, artists such as Willem and Elaine de Kooning and Jackson Pollock.  They grew up together in their artistic lives and through their art had deep conversations.

What's impressive about Still's work is that he left the art scene in 1961 and didn't emerge again until the Metropolitan Museum of Art honored him with a solo retrospective of his work.  When he died in 1980 he still had 94% of all the work he ever created and that's what will be in the museum.  It's obvious that as artists trying to build a business holding on to 94% of our work would have us flipping burgers, but the idea that we will have the opportunity to see the path of development of one of America's greatest abstract artists is inspiring.

One of the important things to distill from the exhibit and eventually the museum is how did he get started, what inspired him, what made him unique and how did he maintain the integrity in his work?  I hope you'll ask yourself these questions because they are questions you should be asking about your own work!  It's imperative that we keep connected to our world view because that 's what makes us unique...one of the four components to becoming a successful artist.

Leaving the comfort zone...
Greg

coaching artists to success