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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nClyfford Still<\/a> standing in front of one of his unnamed pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Italian painter Cennino Cennini<\/a> once said in his 1430 Craftsman\u2019s Handbook<\/a> that \u201cmystery is the art of eliciting unseen things hidden in the shadow of natural ones, and serving to demonstrate as real the things that are not.\u201d This quote comes to mind when viewing the art of Clyfford Still, one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists. The painter and his work have been described as mysterious, dark, rugged, and distinctive. His use of color and texture makes him one of the foremost Color Field painters<\/a>. His work was usually formed by juxtaposing different colors and surfaces in various formations. He painted on oversized canvases and often used various mediums in avant-garde formation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Clyfford Still was born in 1904 in North Dakota. He was mostly raised on the North American frontier in Spokane, WA, and partly in Alberta, Canada, where his family owned a wheat ranch. The vast, flat landscape of the Canadian prairies was reflected in his art, but he later denied its significance in his work. He attended school at Spokane University and studied painting, literature, and philosophy. He eventually graduated from Spokane in 1933 and received a Master\u2019s in Fine Arts from Washington State College in 1935. Still\u2019s work went through several transition periods. One of the most definitive saw the surfacing of dark, earthy tones punctuated by flashes of bright colors and technique, which featured thick layers of paint applied with a palette knife.<\/p>\n\n\n Museum-goers walking through a room of the Clyfford Still Museum<\/a> in Denver, CO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before Still passed in 1980, he made it clear that he wanted his work to remain together because he strongly believed an artist\u2019s work is best understood when experienced in large groups and its entirety. Still\u2019s will declared that his entire collection be given to an American city willing to establish a permanent museum dedicated exclusively to the care and display of his art. The Clyfford Still Estate was sealed off from the public and scholarly view until 2004 when Still\u2019s wife, Patricia, chose Denver to receive the collection. She bequeathed to Denver her estate, which included select paintings by her husband and complete archives. The award-winning Clyfford Still Museum was designed specifically to display Still\u2019s art and is home to nearly everything he created. There are nine galleries of Still\u2019s art in the museum. The museum broke ground in December 2009 and opened its doors to the public on November 18, 2011. When the museum was completed, it received over 830 paintings, 2,300 works on paper, over 23,000 photographs, and thousands of archival objects compiled by the Stills. It features behind-the-scenes painting conservation areas, a hands-on studio, a gift shop, calming landscaping, and outdoor terraces where patrons can ponder Still\u2019s art.<\/p>\n\n\n A picture of Still<\/a> working in his studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clyfford Still was a notoriously difficult and mysterious character. Although not as widely known as some of his New York contemporaries (Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko), he was the first to break through to a new abstract style devoid of obvious subject matter. He was described as a social outcast who often shunned the New York art world, resisted most critiques of his work, and went to exceptional lengths to control how his paintings were sold, collected, and exhibited. Although difficult to work with, Still remains one of our time’s most important abstract expressionists. According to Joyce Tsai<\/a>, an internationally acclaimed curator, scholar, author, and the director of Denver\u2019s Clyfford Still Museum since 2021, Still was not a household name because he held onto 93 percent of everything he made. He had a unique artistic vision and was unwilling to compromise it for money or recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/slasc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-30-at-2.28.53\u202fPM-700x255.png\")
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