Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art - Collections

Collections

The museum houses three primary collections, an international decorative arts collection, a regional collection with a focus on Colorado art, and a retrospective of the work of Vance Kirkland.

(1) International Decorative Arts Collection: Displays objects from the decorative art movements of Arts & Crafts, Aesthetic, Art Nouveau, Glasgow Style, Wiener Werkstätte, De Stijl, Bauhaus, Art Deco, Modern, and Pop Art. The collection focuses on objects from c. 1860 to 1980. Over 3,500 objects are on view at any time. According to scholars, including Patricia Kane, Curator of American Decorative Arts, Yale University, “Nowhere else in the country can one see such a comprehensive presentation of international twentieth-century design.” Peter Loughrey, Director Los Angeles Modern Auction, similarly stated, “I believe your museum has the finest survey of 20th century design on view in America today.”

(2) Colorado/Regional Collection: More than 170 artists are represented by over 700 works on view at any one time. At Kirkland Museum, visitors can see, in depth, the history of Colorado art from traditional through modern (mainly 1874-1980). Two Denver art critics have said: “…the Kirkland became the state’s most important repository of Colorado art." “…the Kirkland has quickly become the largest repository of such Colorado work anywhere.”

(3) Kirkland Retrospective: Vance Kirkland (1904–1981) painted over 1,100 paintings, with works spanning 54 years, ranging from Realism to Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism to his later abstraction. Paintings with Kirkland’s unique oil paint and water mixtures, as well as his watercolor and denatured alcohol mixtures are always on view. A rotating selection of all five of Kirkland’s painting periods is shown, including his idiosyncratic late dot paintings. Kirkland’s paintings have been widely exhibited at 70 museums and 30 universities in 13 countries and 32 states. A one-hour television documentary, Vance Kirkland’s Visual Language—with seven curators and directors from five American museums—was aired on PBS stations from 1994-1996.