Kronkright sees that in “Mustang,” which he thinks is brilliant. But others saw his brightly colored, shimmering art as a symbol of the Chicano and working class experience in the American West, a nod to his own heritage. Kronkright worked on the preservation and conservation of a number of Jiménez’ sculptures, including “Mustang.” The artist often included flake, that glittery quality you see on lowrider cars, in his sculptures. “There was no surface on any Luis Jiménez sculpture that was ever any less than six different colors, each airbrushed separately adding a slightly different tone,” he said. Jiménez was masterful with his colors said Dale Kronkright, head of conservation at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. But the eyes do not have any evil intent whatsoever.” Stephanie Wolf/CPR News Luis Jimenez’s “Mustang” sculpture at DIA on Sept. “And so have anything to do with that incident and this kind of you're afraid of something but then it’s OK it is familiar,” she said.
It was their horse Black Jack, the model for Luis’ final work, who had mysteriously broken into their living room. He had thought there was an invader in their home, but then felt a nudge from a familiar source. “And he said the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.” He heard something in the living room and went to investigate. Susan understands that the “eyes have been a point of focus.” She remembers a time Luis was home alone at night. “I didn’t want to go for that art process.” which has a number of his works including a cowboy riding a blue bucking horse. “I was trying to keep the process I used as close to the industrial process as possible because I felt it was, for lack of a better term, maybe a blue-collar process,” he said in a video for the Smithsonian American Art Museum in D.C. But working with his hands remained a huge part of his process, even as he began experimenting with fiberglass in the 60s. He spent time honing his skills in Mexico City and New York. Luis Jiménez studied architecture and, then, fine art at the University of Texas. “So he grew up with this strong tradition of working with his hands.” Stephanie Wolf/CPR News Susan Jimenez, Luis Jimenez’s widow, at the home she shared with the artist in Hondo, New Mexico on Oct. His father would say “This is how he learns,” Susan said. His widow, Susan Jiménez, said he often told stories about working alongside his dad, how he would come home, his hands marred by the work. As a young child, he apprenticed at his father’s neon-sign shop. Jiménez was born in El Paso, Texas in 1940. Those red eyes though, that people point to as evidence of Mustang’s demonic nature, are actually a tribute to the artist’s father. In the last seven years, the airport’s electrical team has only changed them just twice, Donohoe and her colleagues explained. No, they aren’t portals to perdition or even laser emitters. Horst wasn’t the only one with a question about “Mustang.” Michael “Gunner” Gunstanson, of Lakewood, wondered “who changes the light bulbs in the eyes of the big blue horse.”
“The mustang is very Colorado,” he said, “and then it takes a hard left turn with the red eyes and the blue.” Courtesy Denver International Airport “Mustang” being installed at DIA in 2008. Well, in addition to the horse, there is a mural and gargoyle that might lend credence to that last one.Īdam Horst, of Aurora, thinks the sculpture is a fun, weird welcome to the state. Even if you look past the serious issues they’ve had lately with the reconstruction of the Great Hall, there’s a litany of conspiracy theories that say the outpost is home to Freemasons or a UFO hangar or that the terminal is a pictographic guide to the apocalypse. The airport is thick with intrigue and rumor. “We have this fierce blue mustang that we look at as kind of a protector of travelers, guarding this airport,” said Stacey Stegman, DIA’s senior vice president of communications, marketing and customer service. Officially, the artwork’s name is “ Mustang,” and the piece is a point of pride for the airport. The 32-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture towers over Peña Boulevard, its eyes glowing red at the cars whizzing by.ĭenverites colloquially know this mighty equine as “Blucifer.” Some love it, some hate it, some love to hate it and many more are curious about it. It’s hard to ignore the big blue horse that rears in a display of power and rebellion at Denver International Airport.
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