The Art of the People
A new book and a DPL art exhibit highlight the murals of Colorado
By Erin Vanderberg
In 1881, Allen Tupper True was born to a mercantile family in Colorado Springs, whose frequent dealings with Native Americans heavily influenced the subject matter of the young artist’s work.
“Part of his passion was to show Native Americans as an amazing race of proud people instead of the way they had often been portrayed in the press at that time – as violent and inferior,” said Georgia Garnsey, Park Hill resident and co-author of a new book, The Murals of Colorado: Walls That Speak, written with art historian Mary Motian-Meadows.
Stories like True’s and the resulting treasure hunt to chronicle Colorado’s murals from the turn of the 20th century, through the City Beautiful movement, the Works Progress Administration, the Chicano movement and up to contemporary murals are what finally convinced Georgia to collaborate with Mary, who had been collecting notes and artists interviews on Colorado’s muralists for over 30 years. The two women met through a project sponsored by former Park Hill resident, Kay Miller, to bring murals to the Aurora Arts District.
“It took Mary a year to talk me into it and I finally got hooked” said Georgia. “It was fun working to discover murals and finding some that had been lost. We almost bit off more than we could chew, but we did do it.”
Georgia and Mary launched the release of their book with a Mural Show at the Denver Public Library. The show represented historical murals as well as featuring the work of contemporary muralists like Susan Cooper, John Bonnath, Susan K. Dailey, Emanuel Martinez, Carlos Fresquez and Leo Tanguma, to name a few. The exhibit showcases the results of these two women’s dedicated research, and in the case of William Traher’s photorealistic murals, brought light to some pieces that had been crated for decades.
Seven years in the making, the book is full of colorful photos and stories of Colorado’s muralists. True, for example, lives on through his timeless murals at the Colorado State Capitol and erstwhile Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph building, now CenturyLink.
“It tends to be an art of the people, out in the open for everyone to see and enjoy,” said Georgia. “Telling the story of Colorado’s murals is also a great way to tell the history of the state through its different eras of development.”
The book is available at the Park Hill Cooperative Bookstore, Tattered Cover, the Denver Art Museum, the Brown Palace Hotel, History Colorado, and online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The mural exhibit, Walls That Speak, will continue through August 31st in the Central Library’s 7th floor Vida Ellison Gallery. For more information on the exhibit, visit denverlibrary.org/exhibit-walls-speak-murals-colorado.