DENVER — Happy Birthday, Blucifer!
For 15 years, travelers heading to and from Denver International Airport (DIA) have been greeted every day by a blue horse statue called Blue Mustang or Mustang. However, most people tend to affectionally refer to the statue as Blucifer mostly due to its piercing red eyes.
>ABOVE VIDEO: Celebrating 25 years at DIA
It was originally commissioned back in 1992 for $300,000 as part of DIA's original public art plan and was completed on February 11, 2008.
Conspiracy theories about Blucifer have run widespread across the internet, however, there is one thing that remains true.
The statue’s creator, Luis Jiménez, was killed when a section of the sculpture's three sections came loose in his New Mexico studio, pinning him, and severing an artery in his leg. That was in 2006.
After his death, family and friends made the decision to complete the sculpture. Jiménez’s son took over the project to make sure Blue Mustang got finished.
Weighing at 9,000 lbs. and standing at 32-feet-tall, the fiberglass sculpture “references the grandeur of the Mexican muralists, the energy of the Southwest and the bright colors he experienced as a youth in his father's sign-making company.”
5 facts about Blucifer:
- Mustang's eyes are made out of LED lights, and the maintenance team has changed them just once in DIA's lifetime.
- A team of professionals helps do maintenance work on Blucifer's paint as the mustang becomes weathered. Every year, a local art fabrication and conservation company gives him an exam and a cleaning. They check for any cracks or chips caused by the elements, like hail, rain, snow and wind. The airport says the sculpture typically collects a layer of dirt, dust and bird poop throughout the year, too. The entire thing is washed by hand with distilled water. Typically any holes or cracks are filled and it's repainted with an airbrush. The process can take a couple of weeks.
- Mustang is insured, just like all of the art at DIA. This insurance policy is based on its initial commission amount of $650,000 in 1993.
- A tagger vandalized Mustang in 2019. DIA did update security measures because of this, but, for obvious reasons, they won't say what.
- The statue is partially modelled after Jiménez's very own Appaloosa stallion, named Blackjack.
Denver International Airport holds an extensive public art collection with Colorado-inspired rotating exhibits. For more information, visit https://www.flydenver.com/art.
The beauty of 'Blucifer', Denver's scary, lovable mustang
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