7 DECEMBER 21-27, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Hold Your Horses! DO ARTISTS HAVE A RIGHT TO CREATE INTERPRETATIONS OF “MUSTANG”? YAY OR NEIGH? BY PATRICIA CALHOUN Hundreds of thousands of travelers will pour through Denver International Airport over the holidays, encountering plenty of con- struction barriers, but also some newly reinstalled art, including “Notre Denver,” Terry Allen’s gargoyles that once guarded the baggage-claim area and helped propel airport conspiracy theories with their cre- ative creepiness. Still among the missing is Leo Tanguma’s “Children of the World Dream of Peace,” which carries secret mes- sages for the New World Order or Martians, or maybe just kids dreaming of peace; like Gary Sweeney’s “America, Why I Love Her,” that mural won’t be back until the terminal renovation project is complete. But one piece of art remains a constant, saluting departing Coloradans and welcom- ing visitors: “Mustang,” aka the Blue Devil Horse, aka Blucifer. (Make that Bludoph with his nose and red eyes so bright....) In 1993, a special blue-ribbon arts com- mittee established for the still-unopened Denver International Airport gave a $300,000 commission to New Mexican artist Luis Jiménez to create “Mustang,” a 32-foot-high fi berglass horse that was to be a centerpiece of the airport’s $7 million collection funded through the city’s One Percent for Art public-art program. Commissions went to dozens of artists, some local — including Tanguma and Swee- ney, then a baggage handler for Continental — and some international. Although Jiménez lived in neighboring New Mexico, he fell into the latter category. Born in El Paso, he’d studied art formally at the University of Texas in Austin — and informally at his father’s neon-sign studio — and was known for creating colorful fi berglass sculptures with a Southwestern fl air. His proposal for the massive “Mustang” was based on his eight-foot-high “Mesteño (Mustang)” that’s now part of the University of Oklahoma collection; it recalled both the days when mustangs ran wild on the prairies and this area’s Hispanic heritage. By the time the sculpture was fi nally installed on February 11, 2008 — twelve years and several threats from the city and a lawsuit later — its price had doubled to $650,000, and it had cost the life of Jiménez, who was killed in 2006 when a piece of the 9,000-pound in-the-works statue fell onto the 65-year-old artist, severing an artery in his leg. That’s when the blue horse’s devilish reputa- tion really took off. And once “Mustang” made its long-delayed ap- pearance outside the air- port, things didn’t settle down. One disgruntled Denver resident started a Facebook page called “DIA’s Heinous Blue Mustang Has Got to Go,” which attracted hundreds of members as well as sto- ries in the national media. But it’s not so easy to send a piece of public art to the glue factory; under city rules, such requests can’t even be considered until fi ve years after the work’s installation. By then, “Mustang” had found fi rm footing, as perhaps the most loved — and loathed — piece of public art in Denver. Today, fi fteen years af- ter “Mustang” fi rst reared up over DIA, it’s a local icon. So it’s no surprise that the work has inspired everything from haiku to comics to a fi re- breathing Blucifer caricature. What was a surprise was the letter sent to Abstract Denver by the Artists Rights So- ciety, which represents the Estate of Luis A. Jiménez Jr., claiming that assorted versions of Blucifer on T-shirts and stickers sold at its stores violated intellectual property rights. Abstract Denver is something of a local icon itself, having grown out of IndyInk, an arty screen-printer, into shops on Santa Fe Drive, inside Edgewater Public Market, at Stanley Marketplace and now at 303 16th Street, the latest incarnation of Popup Den- ver, a Downtown Denver program designed to enliven the core city during the pandemic whose third phase could get funding from Denver City Council any day. In the meantime, the new Abstract Denver is exactly the kind of spot that can and should bring shoppers to what remains of the torn-up 16th Street Mall, fi lled with creative knick- knacks and items that make great souvenirs as well as gifts for Denver lifers. Owners Aaron Cohrs and Dave Roggeman are always pushing artistic efforts that showcase local history and oddities, making deals with artists to create ever cooler products that depict the Kraken in Sloan’s Lake or bears testing plane seats high over the Stanley (a true story I heard for the fi rst time when I visited their newest shop) or Blucifer fi ghting “I See What You Mean,” aka the Big Blue Bear. While Cohrs and Roggeman are on the lookout for new work, they’re not looking for trouble. And although they considered “Mustang” fair game for artistic interpreta- tion — after all, it’s public art paid for with public funds — they also don’t have the time or money to fi ght a big legal battle. “If we had the money, or we could fi nd anyone who would do it pro bono, I would absolutely fi ght it,” says Roggeman. “Den- ver artists need to know what they can and can’t do.” Artists like Karl Christian Krumpholz, who received a similar legal missive when he was selling prints of his cartoon of Casa Bonita that had graced the cover of Westword back in May; that work was pulled off of Etsy, although other works remain for sale there. (Andrew Novick, the artist who tipped me off to Abstract Denver’s dilemma, happens to be the old Casa Bonita’s biggest fan; he’s just waiting to see what happens when word of Next Gallery’s show slated for February, The 2024 Casa Bonita Show — How do you like me now?, gets out.) This is not the fi rst time that depictions of Denver’s more famous artworks have resulted in trademark tangles. Those miniature ver- sions of the Big Blue Bear got Visit Denver into some trouble before the organization worked out a deal with its creator, the late Lawrence Argent. Denver International Airport has never even tried to make a min- iature “Mustang”; its contract with the artist was very explicit about how only two-dimen- sional reproductions of the work could be used, and where. But in most cases, the artists who take off on these landmarks are celebrating them, not selling them out. Roggeman sees the artistic renderings of “Mustang” as a way to honor Jiménez, not rip off his estate. “We get to tell his story,” he points out. “We’ve always talked about the artist, and that’s what really pisses me off more than anything. I’ve probably told their dad’s story more than they have.” Besides, Blucifer is much more than “Mus- tang,” he adds. “We’re cel- ebrating it, not stealing it. That’s the whole reason we started this business...we got tired of see- ing the Colorado fl ag on everything. Denver is so much cooler than the Colorado fl ag. And ours are designed by Colorado artists and printed here in Colorado.” For now, Abstract Denver is still selling the T-shirts and posters and stickers with various depictions of Blucifer. “We are selling out of what we have,” Roggeman says, “but we’d like to keep printing them. We just want to know, are we going to be okay?” Not judging from the ARTS letter, which notes that “in order to prevent the need for formal proceedings to enforce our member’s rights, we require for Abstract to 1) promptly remove any and all reproduction of the Products from the Abstract website and all Abstract social media channels where they may be reproduced; 2) prove an accounting of all Products at issue sold; 3) refrain from selling these Products moving forward.” Before Abstract Denver would pony up to fi ght the issue in an actual court, though, Roggeman wants to know what the court of public opinion might say. Can artists in- terpret their surroundings? Are they free to offer their own take on “Mustang,” turning him into Bludolph or Blucifer or whatever? Yay or neigh? Email the author at patricia.calhoun@ westword.com. NEWS KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS “Mustang,” as envisioned by Westword and Abstract Denver’s Max Sherman. DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT/GETTY IMAGES
