Accessibility Tools

The Denver Artists Guild

Its Founding Members; An Illustrated History

by Stan Cuba

Paperback Price $39.95
Ebook Price $31.95
30-day ebook rental price $9.99

Buy Now

foreword by Hugh Grant
introduction by Cynthia Jennings


Published by History Colorado


"A treasure trove of information and the definitive source on Denver art. The research, detail, scholarship and fine writing are remarkable."
—Rob Lewis, Denver art collector
 
"The book is a visual celebration of art history, Colorado history, imagery, color, and style."

—David N. Wetzel, retired Publications Director, History Colorado

"[A] spectacularly colorful book. Some names may be familiar: Anne Evans, photographer Laura Gilpin, Vance Kirkland, and Allen True. The eye-catching work of other artists included here will make readers want to learn more about them. . . . This first-rate book nudges me to want to take up painting since I retired from public service . . . "

Dennis Gallagher, former Colorado state senator and state representative, for the Center for Colorado and the West

"[A] beautiful collection of member biographies and works combined with a historical look at DAG's founding and enduring impact."

5280​

"[A] stunning work."

The Denver Post

"The Denver Artists Guild offers a feast for eyes and minds, and at an unusually afforadable price, mirable dictu."
Colorado Central Magazine

 "Cuba’s highly informative book provides a context for the artists working during a time of great changes and challenges in the art world."
Colorado Book Review 

 

In 1928, the newly organized Denver Artists Guild held its inaugural exhibition in downtown Denver. Little did the participants realize that their initial effort would survive the Great Depression and World War II—and then outlive all of the group’s fifty-two charter members.

The guild’s founders worked in many media and pursued a variety of styles. In addition to the oils and watercolors one would expect were masterful pastels by Elsie Haddon Haynes, photographs by Laura Gilpin, sculpture by Gladys Caldwell Fisher and Arnold Rönnebeck, ceramics by Anne Van Briggle Ritter and Paul St. Gaudens, and collages by Pansy Stockton. Styles included realism, impressionism, regionalism, surrealism, and abstraction. Murals by Allen True, Vance Kirkland, John E. Thompson, Louise Ronnebeck, and others graced public and private buildings—secular and religious—in Colorado and throughout the United States. The guild’s artists didn’t just contribute to the fine and decorative arts of Colorado; they enhanced the national reputation of the state.

Then, in 1948, the Denver Artists Guild became the stage for a great public debate pitting traditional against modern. The twenty-year-old guild split apart as modernists bolted to form their own group, the Fifteen Colorado Artists. It was a seminal moment: some of the guild’s artists became great modernists, while others remained great traditionalists.

Enhanced by period photographs and reproductions of the founding members’ works, The Denver Artists Guild chronicles a vibrant yet overlooked chapter of Colorado’s cultural history. The book includes a walking tour of guild members’ paintings and sculptures viewable in Denver and elsewhere in Colorado, by Leah Naess and author Stan Cuba.

More Reviews
High Country News

 

Stan Cuba, a graduate of Columbia University in New York, is associate consulting curator (and former associate curator) of the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art in Denver. In addition to curating and writing catalogs for many exhibits of regional art, he has written John F. Carlson and Artists of the Broadmoor Academy, Sandzén in Colorado, The Denver Artists Guild—Its Founding Members: An Illustrated History, and coauthored The Art of Charles Partridge AdamsThe Colorado BookPikes Peak Vision: The Broadmoor Art Academy, 1919–1945, and Celebrating the Broadmoor Art Academy and Its Legacy 1919-1970.

University Press of Colorado Logo

Details

  • Paperback Price: $39.95
  • Paperback ISBN: 978-0-942576-58-0
  • Ebook Price: $31.95
  • 30-day ebook rental price: $9.99
  • EISBN: 978-0-942576-59-7
  • Publication Month: July
  • Publication Year: 2015
  • Pages: 260
  • Illustrations: 280 figures
  • Discount Type: Trade
  • Author: by Stan Cuba
  • ECommerce Code: 978-0-942576-58-0

Related Titles

Browse Related Titles Tagged Under:

University Press of Colorado University of Alaska Press Utah State University Press University of Wyoming Press