Grand Junction, Colorado [Summer 2001]

The Art Center is delighted to present a major exhibit of works by one of Colorado's most prominent historic artists, Frank Mechau. Mechau was born in 1904 in Kansas. His painting career took him to Europe where he was influenced by the Cubist and Abstract Expressionist movements of the time, and where he studied the early Italian Renaissance painters. In 1933, he returned to Colorado and ultimately settled in Redstone. After Mechau's untimely death in 1946 at age 42, his wife, Paula, and their four children, Vanni, Dorik, Duna and Michael, helped support themselves by performing as The Mechau Balladeers, a folk singing family. Also, over the years, Paula taught folk music in schools from Carbondale to Grand Junction to Gateway. To this day Paula and three of the four grown children, and many of their own family members, still live on the Western Slope.

During his lifetime, Mechau was the only Colorado artist ever to be awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, and he attained national acclaim as one of the major WPA muralists in the 1930s and 40s. His mural "Wild Horse Race" has very recently been removed from the Carbondale Post Office building for restoration in Washington D.C. Once restored, the piece will be relocated to the new Federal Courthouse Building in Denver to be hung alongside two of Mechau's other historic murals, Indian Fight and Pony Express.

Mechau served as the Chairman of the Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture Departments at Columbia University in New York, was a key figure in the Broadmoor Art Academy (now the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center) and influenced an entire generation of American painters. The Art Center's own Verona Burkhard was one of Mechau's devoted students, along with well-known artists Ethel and Jenne Magafan and Ed Chavez.

Mechau expressed the landscape, horses and lore of the West in a style both personal and powerful. His work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and other public institutions, as well as numerous prestigious private collections throughout the nation. In May, we have the honor and privilege of hosting a major exhibit of Mechau's works on loan from the private collections of the artist's family and friends. The first comprehensive survey of Mechau's career in twenty years, the exhibit includes historic Western Colorado landscapes; numerous studies for his WPA murals; sketches and drawings, both framed and from the artist's portfolio; unfinished paintings; and sensitive portrayals of his own family. Some of the works have never before been seen by the public.

"Frank Mechau: An Intimate Portrait of a Colorado Master" represents a rare opportunity to view, in one public location, an exquisite collection of important historic and personal works by a nationally known master from our very own community. We hope you'll join us! Art Center. Corner 7th & Orchard. 970 243-7337. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.