DENVER, COLO.- Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art will continue to celebrate its 20th anniversary this year with a second exhibition, Dave Yῡst—Evidence of Gravity & Other Works. Please visit our site for more information about other exhibitions and programming throughout the year, including a talk with Colorado-based artist Dave Yῡst on September 13th.
Currently residing in Fort Collins, Colorado, Dave Yῡst, 84, started out studying aeronautical engineering and architectural design in Wichita, Kansas. He first attended Wichita State University (1957–1959) before moving to Kansas State University in 1959, where he studied painting under Gerald Deibler and pottery under Angelo Garzio. In 1961, he headed home to Wichita where he worked at an architectural firm before deciding to pursue a BFA in painting and drawing at the University of Kansas. After graduating, Yῡst moved to Colorado and met Vance Kirkland (1904–1981), the Museum’s namesake, who became a great friend and inspiration.
Yῡst taught painting at Colorado State University for 47 years before retiring in 2012. Since 1969, his art focus has been about resolving the challenge of combining geometric and organic/biomorphic imagery. He continues to explore this compositional dichotomy within elliptically and circularly-shaped paintings and monotypes with an emphasis on his use of equi-luminous colors.
Founding Director & Curator Hugh Grant has been an advocate of Yῡst for decades and has acquired work going back to the mid-1960s. Grant states,"Of the Colorado and regional modern/abstract painters and print artists that are represented at Kirkland Museum, I believe that Dave Yῡst is easily one of the most important of the 20th century and into the 21st century. Now 84—young for him evidently—he continues to create some of his most significant paintings; hence this exhibition is a wonderful artistic achievement to behold with his recent paintings, as well as his older works.”
This exhibition was co-curated by Founding Director & Curator Hugh Grant and Deputy Curator Christopher Herron and will feature 52 paintings, drawings, prints and posters, all abstract, by Dave Yῡst. Seventeen paintings and 10 drawings are part of a traveling exhibition organized by Yῡst and Cori Sherman North at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg, Kansas, earlier this year. Eight paintings, 10 prints and eight posters are from Kirkland Museum’s collection, most serving as examples of his earlier work from 1967 to 1988. The posters illustrate more retrospective works and document some of the museums and galleries in which Yῡst has had exhibitions. Most artworks in this exhibition have never been displayed at Kirkland Museum and many are on loan from the artist himself.
The name of the exhibition references Yῡst's use of catenary curves in his paintings. As Yῡst explains, “A catenary curve is the curve that a hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends. Direct evidence of gravity!”
An audio tour, including additional information from Dave Yῡst, will be available on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app.
You are invited to attend the Press Preview of Dave Yῡst—Evidence of Gravity & Other Works on Tuesday, June 20th from 2pm to 3pm. Dave Yῡst will be in attendance and available for interviews in person or arranged separately. It will also include remarks from co-curators, Hugh Grant and Christopher Herron. Please RSVP to Abby Oppenheim by June 15th.
Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art inspires people through the beauty of art and design presented in a unique and approachable way. The Museum carries on the curatorial vision established by Founding Director & Curator Hugh Grant (b. 1945), who was influenced by artist and educator Vance Kirkland (1904–1981). The Museum serves the general public and scholars through exhibitions, the loan of works and public programs.
June 21, 2023–October 1, 2023
