Kirkland Museum

We took another roll through the Kirkland Museum the other night, and since the museum lets you take photos without a flash, we thought we'd share a bit of the experience with you.

Vance Kirkland was born in Ohio in 1904, studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and, if his self-portrait is to be believed, grew up to look something like this:

Vance Kirkland, self-portrait, 1946 (Kirkland Museum)

The Denver Art Museum has some of his pieces, including early watercolors and later oil paintings featuring his signature abstract designs with dots. But the Kirkland Museum down the street at 13th and Pearl has more selections.

It also has furniture and other collected objects from his era (like these chairs! The one on the left is made of cardboard)

The building holds his former studio, which you can still see today, complete with the straps that would hold him above his large canvases so he could paint them. He would use a small dowel to produce the dots.

Kirkland studio, Kirkland Museum