DENVER, CO.-The Denver Art Museum will host the national debut of Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975, on view November 9, 2007 through February 3, 2008. Organized by the American Federation of Arts, this is the largest exhibition of major color field works ever exhibited in the region. Featuring approximately 40 color field paintings—expansive canvases washed with flat areas of luminous color—the exhibition will not only provide a visual feast of color, but will offer insight into a high point of American abstract painting.

Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975, will trace the origins of Color Field painting in American post-war abstraction of the 1950s as a rejection of the gestural, layered, hyper-emotional approach typical of Willem de Kooning and his followers. More than half a century has passed since Helen Frankenthaler first began staining thin, luminous paint into raw canvas, translating the implications of Jackson Pollock’s all-over poured paintings into a personal language. Frankenthaler’s way of simultaneously painting and drawing with delicate washes on unprimed canvas—famously described by Morris Louis as “the bridge between Pollock and what was possible”—pointed the way to a new kind of American abstraction based on expanses of radiant, uninflected hues. Color Field pioneers such as Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski and Larry Poons will be featured alongside works from the Abstract Expressionist generation. The exhibition will include important works by Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, artists whose ideas about all-overness and the primacy of color made them important predecessors to the Color Field movement.

"These are just drop-dead gorgeous paintings,” said Gwen Chanzit, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum , and local curator of the exhibition. “Reproductions don’t do them justice—you really have to stand in front of them to understand their impact.”

Color Field painting, as this approach came to be known, includes some of the most powerful and beautiful works in the history of recent art. Yet in the wake of Post-Modernism marked by cynicism, irony, and political agendas, Color Field abstraction—with its wholehearted quest for visual impact and wordless eloquence—has been somewhat overlooked. Color as Field offers an opportunity to re-evaluate this important aspect of modern painting.

“The Color as Field exhibition is a natural next step for the Denver Art Museum following the opening of galleries for our own modern and contemporary collection in the new Frederic C. Hamilton building last fall. It will also complement the current suite of paintings by Clyfford Still on view at the Museum,” said Lewis Sharp, Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the Denver Art Museum . An exhibition of Still’s work, Clyfford Still Unveiled: Selections from the Estate, will be simultaneously on view at the Denver Art Museum during the Color as Field exhibition. Organized by the Clyfford Still Museum, these thirteen major works by Clyfford Still offer a sneak peek at what visitors will find when the Clyfford Still Museum opens next door to the Denver Art Museum in 2010.

Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975 is guest curated by Karen Wilkin, along with AFA curator Yvette Y. Lee, and locally curated at the Denver Art Museum by Gwen Chanzit . This exhibition is made possible, in part, by grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. The exhibition will open on the first floor of the North Building at the Denver Art Museum, and will continue on to the third floor of the Hamilton Building, introducing visitors to the related works in the permanent modern and contemporary art collection in that building. After the Denver Art Museum , the exhibit will travel to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington , D.C. , on February 29, 2008, and it will finish its tour at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville , Tennessee , opening there on June 20, 2008. Additional local funding for this exhibition is provided by the citizens who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District and the generous donors to the Annual Leadership Campaign. Promotional support is provided by The Denver Post.

Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975 is accompanied by a fully illustrated 127-page catalogue published by the American Federation of Arts in association with Yale University Press. It includes essays by Karen Wilkin and Carl Belz, Director Emeritus of the Rose Art Museum , Brandeis University , who has organized a number of important exhibitions of artists associated with the Color Field movement.

American Federation of Arts

The AFA is a nonprofit institution that organizes art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops educational materials and programs. For more information on the AFA, please visit www.afaweb.org.

Denver Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum is located on 13th Avenue between Broadway and Bannock Streets in downtown Denver . Open Tuesday-Thursday & Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Sunday noon-5 p.m., closed Mondays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission for Colorado residents: $10 adults, $8 seniors 65+ and students, $3 youths 6-18, free for children under 6. Admission for non-Colorado residents: $13 for adults, $10 for seniors 65+ and students, $5 youths 6-18, free for children under 6. Other pricing may apply for special exhibitions. General Museum admission is free for Colorado residents the first Saturday of each month, thanks to citizens who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). The Cultural Complex Garage is open; enter from 12th Avenue just west of Broadway or check the DAM website for up-to-date parking information. Adaptive and interpretive services are available with one week's notice by calling 720-865-5065; TTY 720-865-5003. For information in Spanish, call 720-913-0169. For more information, visit www.denverartmuseum.org or call 720-865-5000.