Modern Art In Denver Book Summary

Modern Art in Denver (1919-1960): Eleven Denver Artists, by Elizabeth Schlosser, is a little book covering the introductory biographies of artists involved in French Modernism, American Scene Painting or Regionalism, and Abstract Expressionism. The book starts with an introduction about the Denver Art Museum’s inauguration and the controversies surrounding modern art during its inception. Schlosser focuses on artists who influenced the art scene in Denver, but didn’t originate Denver. The book spotlights Elizabeth Spalding, John E. Thompson, Paul K. Smith, Frank Vavra, Vance Kirkland, Alfred Wands, Louise Ronnebeck, William Sanderson, Nadine Drummond, Mary Cane Robinson, and Roland Detre. Many of whom didn’t move to Denver until there thirties or forties, such as William Sanderson, Mary Can Robinson, Nadine Kent Drummond, and Roland Detre. However, their contribution s to the art movements of Denver and their subject matter had enough impact to associate their art works to Denver history.
In spite of this, the book is too brief and bare bones to fully explain the true importance of each artist to Denver’s modern art world.
Schlosser fails to provide enough information about each artist to educate the “Denver residents” who “generally do not know about their own historic artists.” With this statement, Schlosser wrote this book with intention of introducing theses eleven artists to locals who know little to nothing about major Denver artists. This book should be called Modern Painters in Denver because Schlosser intentionally left out sculptors and artists who worked in different mediums than paint. This book works as preparatory book on Modern painters of Denver and successfully entices readers to research more. The biographical information provides a solid establishment for each artist and the timeline at the end offers a great reference point linking artists to each other in
time.
Though the photos in this book are high quality, the arrangement of the photos is not uniform or complimentary to the text. There is a section of full color photos placed in the middle of the book, causing readers to constantly flip back and forth to reference the artworks from specific artists. It would be less of an issue if all art photos were compiled in the “Color Plates” section, but several photos reside within individual artist sections only in black and white. The intention of the photo design may be to separate black and white photos from the higher quality full color photos, but the effect wasn’t worth the effort. Elizabeth Schlosser possesses a Bachelor’s of Arts from Stanford University and a Masters of Arts from the University of Colorado with a historic preservation specialty. She was the executive director of Historic Denver Inc. and is a private art dealer specializing in regional Colorado art. She had her own art gallery from 1994 to 2001. She is the author of Modern Sculpture in Denver (1919-1960): Twelve Denver Sculptors and Modern Clay in Denver (1948-1972): Twelve Ceramic Artists. In 2005, Schlosser was also series editor for Gallup House Fine Art and Publishing’s Documents of Colorado Art. Elizabeth Schlosser ran for Denver mayor in 2003, but John Hickenlooper secured the title of mayor.
On an adjacent note, Schlosser includes four female artists among the eleven artists presented. This is important because history is often written with a focus on males. Denver’s history as well as art history should include all participants that molded their development. As a former art gallery owner and mayor candidate, Schlosser understands the significance of women contributing to history and being recognized for their achievements.