Brad Cloepfil's Clyfford Still Museum Breaks Ground

The museum will house 2,400 of the abstract expressionist's works that have not been viewed in public since 1980.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 12/28/2009 12:00:00 AM

Residents of the Mile High City can walk even taller now that ground has been broken on the highly anticipated Clyfford Still Museum.

Located in Denver's arts district and scheduled to open in 2011, the museum is designed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, the firm behind several major museum projects, including the Museum of Arts & Design in New York. Cloepfil's design calls for a two-story, 30,000-square-foot cantilevered building of textured concrete with a series of open, light-filled spaces designed to accommodate a rotating exhibition program of the abstract expressionist's work.

The museum will boast a collection of 2,400 of Still's artworks that were bequeathed to the City of Denver by his estate in 2004. The paintings, estimated to be 94 percent of Still's total output, haven't been scene in public since 1980, the year of his death.

"The new Clyfford Still Museum will offer incredible insight into the life and work of one of the greatest painters of our time, and will be of international significance to the collective art and cultural community," says museum director Dean Sobel.

The museum will be located amidst good company in Denver's Civic Center Cultural Complex plaza. It's near the new Daniel Libeskind Denver Art Museum and the Denver Public Library designed by Michael Graves.