Abstraction is central to the art history of Colorado. In 1948, fifteen progressive painters broke from the convention-bound Denver Artists Guild and organized their own exhibition, sparking such local newspaper headlines as “Modern vs. Traditional Painting Inspires Denver Artists’ Schism.” Dale Chisman, a Denver luminary who died in 2008 at age sixty-five, was an heir of this fertile movement, and his vibrant abstractions were enthusiastically sought by the Denver Art Museum and collectors across the region. While elsewhere in the country Chisman’s name may hardly generate a flicker of recognition,