Denver's Ugliest Public Art

By ThePoorestTourist
updated 2 months ago

On the streets of Denver you can find some of the world's most impressively bad art. Here is a guided tour.

Comments

by striquer about 1 month ago

What’s really sad is that Colorado Springs has really cool sculpture in their (pathetic) downtown, that changes on a semi-regular basis. Denver’s well, you already said it, it’s ugly.

by Head about 1 month ago

The only one of those I really don’t like is the stack of fries. It’s not interesting and doesn’t age well as the color fades.

I happen to like the dancing aliens, but the blue bear (not listed in this guide) is better.

by vicsin 2 months ago

This is fantastic. Please PLEASE someone put the horse at the airport down. It frightens small children and is the first thing visitors see after leaving the airport – not a great first impression.

by Ben-Kronberg 4 months ago

are you saying those sculptures are like bad 3-D graffiti? i rather like that stuff for some reason – esp. the horse – i was mixed on the broom and dust, but its fun and it reminds us to clean up – the one i wish you would have put up is that hideously “safe” mural on the 15th st. side of the pavillions – its that pastel beach scene – it makes me soft to think about it.

by Jennswann 4 months ago

So funny. Come to NYC and check out some bad art here!

by Nina 4 months ago

I love the fat lady at the DPAC; it makes me feel skinny. The mustang on the other hand is creepy. I’m waiting for it to break free and attack an unsuspecting tourist.

by mswen 4 months ago

This is hysterical!

by Jessica H 4 months ago

Funny stuff, made me laugh!

by GillianS 4 months ago

I’m gonna have to go ahead and disagree on the fry stack. It’s been well-documented that I love french fries, so Denver just wouldn’t be Denver without a view of that thing! Come on!

by leigh 4 months ago

I thought I was the only one who hated the fat lady & fat gentleman at the Denver PAC! The fries stack is the absolute worst, though, in my opinion.

Ugly is in the Eye of the Beholder.

The true test of a piece of public art is whether or not you would like to be photographed in front of it. It does not need some great artistic merit, some deeper meaning, or to even be pretty to look at. Public art needs only to be novel and arresting. It should have just enough punch to make a tourist stop and say, “Hey, Betty. Take a picture of me in front of that thing”.

With more parks and public spaces than almost any other city in America, Denver has a lot of public art. Some of it, like the giant blue bear that peeks into the Denver Convention Center, capture just the right amount of whimsy. But many other pieces fall far short. Bad public art is simply embarrasing. Here are some of the worst offenders.

Denver Art Museum

100 W 14th Ave, Denver, CO 80204

This big, ugly tribute to cleaning supplies stands just outside the main entrance to the Denver Art Museum. Sculptors Coosje Van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg say that this piece, The Big Sweep, was inspired by the way the winds meet the mountains in Denver. I don’t see it. I more likely believe that it was inspired by a ginormous janitor. Van Bruggen has also stated that the colors of the sculpture were suggested to him by a duck he saw in a Tokyo park. I’m not kidding.

Denver Center for Performing Arts

1245 Champa St, Denver, CO 80204

Under the protective shell of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts you will find this portly statue. Your art-snob friends will tell you that this big girl was sculpted by Botero, a very important 20th century artist, and that Denver is lucky to have one of his works. Personally, I think she looks like the late Anna Nicole Smith, and someone show throw a blanket over her.

Denver Public Library

10 W 14th Avenue Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204

The Yearling, by Donald Lipski, stands outside the main branch of the Denver Public Library facing 14th Street. I hate this sculpture, and have for a long time. In the 1990’s it stood in Central Park in New York and, as a young man, I would walk by and quietly loathe it. When I moved to Denver I was glad to leave it behind. And then it followed me here. Bad horse!

Rocket

2100 Gilpin St, Denver, CO 80205

This bizarre chrome piece of futuristic artillery popped up in the past year outside the Rocket Building on 18th Avenue. It’s not big enough to be impressive, and it’s not realistic enough to be cool. Like most 1950’s science fiction, it’s just kind of lame. And I don’t like that it seems to be pointed at Childrens Hospital. That’s just mean.

Denver Design Center

595 S Broadway, Denver, CO 80209

Just what every city needs: an 85 foot stack of french fries. It might not even be the sculpture itself that I find so offensive. It’s the color. Its so Yellow! Herbert Bayer’s “Articulated Wall” has been standing at the Denver Design Center on Broadway for long enough that it has become an iconic symbol of our city. That is just sad.

Denver International Airport

Aurora, CO 80010

This statue is bad in every way. When I first drove past it, on my way to the main terminal of DIA, I had to pull over and stare at it. It is amazingly ugly. First, it’s huge, probably 30 feet tall. Secondly, it is oddly distorted. It looks like it was sculpted by someone who had never seen a real horse. It looks crazed and angry and evil. On top of that, it is bright blue with light-up red terminator eyes. And like all evil Frankenstien Monsters, this one killed it’s creator. Sculptor Luis Jimenez was crushed to death when this statue fell on him in his studio last year. Now that is Bad Art.

Colorado Convention Center

700 14th St, Denver, CO 80202

What discussion of bad art in Denver would be complete without a mention of the giant, ridiculous, embarrasing, giant naked dancing aliens on the lawn of the Denver Convention Center. I don’t think I have ever met anyone who likes this statue, on any level. And since it is seen by anyone who visits our city for a convention, it will be forever associated with Denver in the minds of people worldwide. Oh, for shame.