Hrag Vartanian interviews David Anfam about the exhibition Clyfford Still: Memory, Myth & Magic at Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, on view through September 29, 2013.

Anfam comments: "What is intriguing is how these canvases reveal Still on the cusp between a residual figuration — they include vestiges of rising monstrous presences, solar discs, snaking shapes, and so on—and the full-fledged abstraction that he reached within a year. Then again, Still had already done radical compositions before that time. It was typical of him to swing backwards and forwards stylistically. This is why certain works now look 'advanced' for their date, while others appear retrogressive."