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The DIA Giant Blue Bronco
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- No
81 reviews for The DIA Giant Blue Bronco
I love unique art, this kind of art creeps me out.
I had to join the band wagon and comment on this lovely horse.
It reminds me of the Amityville Horror story where the little girl Missy has an imaginary friend named "Jodie" - a demonic pig-like creature that has glowing red eyes.
Have we named our demonic horse yet????
It is something fun to point out to visitors. That's pretty much the only redeeming quality.
It's ugly, it's expensive, and it killed its artist! And its title is "Mustang." It's not even a Bronco. That doesn't even make sense.
I love the public art in Denver, but this is something that could be replaced by something just as interesting without being so weird and horrible.
Maybe we could sell it on ebay.
LOL I just saw this thing reviewed on a friend's account and I had to do it too! I HATE THIS THING. It's hideous! Even before I moved to Colorado I would visit and just cringe when I saw that horrifying blue monster! I hate it so much my mother and son keep threatening to find a way to make a mini one to give me as a gift! Hate it!!
I give this .5 star
This is Denver, not Creep City, CO.
All hail the dark master of the Eastern Colorado plains! Our cloven-hoofed lord beckons us to his lair each time we must propagate our sinister message across the land. Every time I gaze deep into the beast's eyes before I posit my steed at Ye Olde Economy Parking Lot, I feel his power ignite within me, like the fiery embers past the gates of hell.
What is thy bidding, my emaciated equine emperor?
It pains me to think that when someone comes to our fair city for the first time, they are greeted by a satanic horse with glowing red eyes. Look out if it's a foggy night. Not only this, but the evil horse actually KILLED the man who made it. So...creepy and homicidal.
Welcome to Denver!
I don't get it. Broncos statue? Evil guardian of the airport? Adult animal film star?
Heard the story - sad one - still don't get it.
Not sure where to put this one. Generally I like horse-themed art but I'm not really into a blue one with glowing red eyes. I don't really like this piece, but that doesn't mean it should not be art. I get all the controversy, especially the part about "Welcome to Denver, we're all about huge very well-hung horses with red demon eyes."
People who visit me mostly come from other countries, and mostly from Canada (yes, that is another country, google it). Their reaction? None. Once I accidentally pointed it out to my mom and she said, "Oh. Well. I don't know." And then resumed our conversation about, um, well whatever we were talking about. But that's how Canadians are - as Canadian as possible, given the circumstances. On another occasion I pointed it out to my brother and it spurred a conversation about the other public art in Denver. He's an architect, so he checked into the other artworks and left with the impression that Denver is *not* just a back water Prairie hick town full of toothless hillbillies with receding foreheads, but is in fact a city trying to seem like a fairly cosmopolitan urban center.
I am developing this impression that Big Blue Horse, King Dong, Devil Pony is more offensive to Denverites than to anyone else.
Three stars, because I can't award 2-1/2 stars. I don't personally like the piece, but It does what public art is supposed to do: stir up conversation.
Sadly Ive come to the conclusion that we as a state, or at least those who pick our public art, are tasteless losers.
I love art. I support local artists, our house is full of things from locals. This is just ugly. It's tacky, it's really scary and creepy, and in no way (IMO) identifies with me a Coloradan, or Denverite.
All it needs to complete the look is the bones of humans for it ground to dust under its hooves, maybe occasionally fire lasers and fry a passing taxi.
If it wouldn't cost us more to remove I'd say let's remove it.
Art is subjective, but I'm sorry, some art is just crap, and expensive price tags typically are sign #1.
1. Creepy.
2. Demonic?
3. Looks like it would make a cameo in a Rob Zombie film.
Did my take dollars really pay for this? Really?
You'll see a 30 foot tall blue horse with a HUGE hard on, then turn left. wtf. Sounds like the directions to a Tijuana donkey show. The cartoonishly blue horse just looks out of place against the landscape. I don't so much mind the design, but who picked that color?
Really art is art and we should appreciate it for what it is, it is a beautiful sculpture that shows the strength of our fine city
I love it.
I've rarely seen anything draw so much reaction (as art should do).
Not to mention, it's the same bronco that is at Pepsi Center, but with red eyes, like most of my weekend pictures.
So I feel like this bronco and I are connected.
I think he just had drinks in the airport and wants to"get this started."
I want a picture with him......stay tuned.
Long live the DIA Giant Bronco!!!!
On the day that Kym B gets ROTD for her fabulous review of the DIA Giant Blue Bronco, Channel 9 airs a story about a campaign to get rid of the statue. In my opinion, any art piece that creates this much discussion is good. After all, isn't that what good art is about; something to be experienced and to create discussion? If the Big Blue Bronco goes, should we then remove Pablo Picasso's Guernica from display because the horse in his painting is scary?
I personally like it; it is an art piece of a horse. Enough said from me.
All the people who hate the Blue Bronco don't have a heavy metal bone in their body. That thing rocks a llama's ass, hardcore.
I almost can't even fathom how anyone wouldn't recognize how completely badass this thing is and would want to have it taken down. The dislike of it is testament to the wimpification of a nation.
I agree that it looks like a harbinger of doom, but I happen to think that's totally awesome. It belongs on the cover of a classic 80's metal album cover, rearing up against an apocalyptic blood red sky. It belongs in a wicked schizophrenic fever dream. I think Tenacious D needs to write an ode to it.
It might just be the most insane rock n' roll piece of artwork I've seen and we're lucky to have it.
.
Pros:
-it's blue
-it's fun to make fun of
-allows me to better my Photoshop skills
Cons:
-completely hideous
-$650,000 to build
-artist died while making it (it does enhance the creepiness of it)
-have you seen the genitals on this sucker?
-horrible pose, with ridiculous proportions (it's like a T-rex mixed with an elephant, mixed with a donkey)
It's too bad there's no other route out to DIA... I'll be heading out there on Saturday and am eager to have me a good laugh!
This guy also made a smaller version at Oklahoma University (google it).
Love all the hype this is getting, there's a facebook page and it's getting some great media exposure.
I posted an idea for a new location of this beast.... check it out!
Ridiculous.
I get the blue, I get the horse, I even get the emaciated ribcage... but demon red eyes? A head totally disproportionate to the body? A totally weird silhouette of what should be a flowing main & tail?
I'm sorry, Mayor Hickenlooper... this thing is FUGLY. It in no way speaks to the majesty and wilderness of the Front Range and the Rocky Mountains. When visitors fresh to our city are reacting to this statue with comments varying from "Huh..." to "WTF?" it's time to reconsider. SO many other, different, better ways to symbolize our great state then this.
Round trip ticket to Portland, Or: $250
Gasing up the car for the ride to DIA: $15.75
Two toll booths on the E-470: $4.50
Being able to view the unbridled grandeur of a 32 foot tall, electric blue, anatomically correct, rearing horse with blazing red eyes: Priceless
That statue is the best 600,000 tax-payer dollars ever spent.
I never particularly cared for this thing until I saw just how much other people hate it. Now I think it's awesome.
Listen, I know that there is an ongoing campaign to get this thing removed. I understand. You're driving to the airport and this thing is staring at you with its pure evil red eyes. It's jarring. It's distracting. I can see why people want it removed.
But here's the deal. This thing KILLED it's creator. You can look it up. The poor guy that put this statue into existence, and the evil son of a b***h KILLED him. Do you have any idea what it's going to do if we try and take it down?
I guarantee you that the poor workers assigned the task of disassembling this monster will be crushed by it, and likely their families will be killed too. This bronco doesn't f**k around. It killed it's maker, you think it's going to hesitate to murder those who would dare destroy it?
If we try and remove this thing now, Colorado is doomed. DOOMED I TELL YOU! Expect plagues, famine, frogs falling from the sky, rivers of blood, and nothing but reality shows on television. You Do Not F**k With The Giant Blue Bronco.
My advice? Placate this thing, don't anger it. Next time you drive to DIA, mutter "All Hail Demon Horse" under your breath, or expect deadly turbulence.
Continental Airlines flight 1404 crashed because they did not appease The Horse. That plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River? A guy on that plane was making a connection from Denver and made some nasty comment about Demon Horse. Only because he repented did those people live. It's true, I read about it on Yelp, in THIS VERY REVIEW!
Seriously, end the campaign to take down the Giant Blue Bronco. This thing will kill you, for real.
Please forgive them, O Demon Horse. They know not what they do.
Who the hell wants to see one of the horses that will be ridden by a horseman of the Apocalypse before they fly? Not me.
HA! I love that this is on Yelp!
Okay... I kinda don't mind it during the day but at night, after getting off a VERY long flight and being tried and woozy and seeing those glowing red eyes... I thought I was in hell.
Here's the scary deal with this thing...
The artist died while making it (yes, the horse killed him. One section of the body swung out of control and hit him, killing him).
The eyes glow in tribute to the artist's dad who did neon.
It took over 16 years to complete and get to Denver.
The city wanted to give it back/ not take possession but they had to.
I just feel like it doesn't represent Denver. That's my problem with it. It is so prominent that everyone sees it going in or out of the state (and other states too since so many people fly into Denver for other locations). And this guy designed it to honor his dad and other ideas but he wasn't even from Denver.
Couldn't we have had a Denver based artist create something that was reminiscent of Denver?
The big blue stallion is lame and looks like the harbinger of doom.
The funny thing about this statue is that it really doesn't inspire me one way or the other. I think my biggest problem is its placement. Driving by at 45 mph (oh yeah, and the road curves there too) and trying to get a good look is dangerous. I also wish it would have been bigger, as it seems to lose a bit of its "intensity" at it's currently location. I think it's dwarfed by the flatness of eastern Colorado!
Now if we want to talk about funky public art, what's that pile of bean bags shaped like a big pink phallus (big red glowing phallus at night) over there by the bridge to Highlands?
I see this thing twice a week. What an embarrassment to Denver!
Did Mayor Hickenlooper lose a bet or something? They can't plow city streets, but they can buy crap like this?
Was this part of the Department of Homeland Security's plan to keep out terrorists? Because according to their site, blue means "GUARDED: General risk of terrorist attacks". Combined with the lady inside always bitching about the threat level being orange, you could have a Broncos football party in the West Terminal.
I'm pretty sure foreigners wonder what Coloradans (if not Americans in general) are trying to say when they drive by this Trojan horse from hell. After all, it took out its creator with no mercy.
Or maybe Continental bribed DIA to put this thing up as a warning message to passengers flying other airlines. That would explain why it's blue and always in heat. Pay up the extra baggage fee, or prepare to get trampled on.
It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't the first thing you saw after driving fifteen miles down Peña Boulevard wondering where the hell the airport actually was.
I think I love it because it pisses so many people off. I wasn't sure about it at first, but the more it gets talked about the more I love it.
It is edgy and unexpected. I love that Denver has an art piece that is contemporary and not campy western.
I heard a man on the news that said he would like it better if they made it a "Bronco Horse and gave it orange eyes". I love Denver and the Broncos, but I will lose all faith in the imagination of people if this were to happen.
Once a fascinating novelty thrust with magnum force against the backdrop of the majestic Rocky Mountains, this sculpture quickly lost its appeal to me and simply makes me scratch my head every time I see it now. A nightmarish oversized horse? Really? Excuse me, Colorado, but your neighbor to the north, Wyoming, already claimed the bronco as its state symbol. I think we could be little more original.
When I am picking someone from the airport at night, the ghoulish stallion's evil orange eyes make me step on the gas pedal a little harder lest I become the target of its X-Men gamma rays waiting to shoot out any second. Try explaining that to the cops. What makes the sculpture even creepier is the story of the beast crushed and killed its creator while he was creating it. Yeesh.
It is an impressive work of art, no doubt, but the Denver City Council must be queasy that it is now the first thing visitors see after deplaning in our great state. The silver lining, I suppose, is that Denver has garnered attention at a national level as of late. Then again, not all of it is positive.
Just Awesome.
This piece has traveled all around the 'ol Mobius strip from ass ugly to Awesome.
Denver needs this, it's perfect on so many levels. It's like a big coming out party, it's the Naked Cowboy, it's the guy toking in the middle of downtown Portland, it's the super fat dude eating the hoagy in Philly.
It's a big fuck you! It's so mind numbingly scary and hideous, and we can do it! You're here in Denver: getting a job, at a convention, seeing a long-lost friend, and you will... you will... Stare at the ass scary, blue, laser death eyed, big wang hanging monstrosity.
It doesn't make us a cow-town, it's a post-post-post modern admittance of the former cow-town-hood proclaiming it's status as a metropolis (see, post-post-post modern feminism: as in "I can dress like a super slut on Halloween because it objectifies me and I know it's objectifying me and I control my femininity and therefore I am in power (I love my wife!)")
So yeah.
Please don't take it down, to be a awesome cosmopolitan city you need uniqueness.
Not only do I love the DIA Giant Blue Bronco, I wish he would procreate with other statues and make tons of weird baby statues.
Let's see, we have the Ichabod Crane, Headless Horseman Statue, we have National Velvet ( even a girl horse !! ), and if we go outside the horse race, we have Wall Street's Charging Bull -- now that union would make for an interesting statue -- I've sent that one into Conan already -- too late.
It's ART people -- Art should provoke. Art should have us talking.
Didn't the Blue Bronco do exactly what we Expect from Art.
Part of me wants to say, if you don't like, look away -- same as if you don't like Imus or Howard Stern, or everyone from NPR, turn the dial.
5 Stars for Free Speech !!!!
The other part is so happy that it has both sides debating an Art Piece; drawing much needed attention to little 'Ol Denver.
Now let's bring Art back in the Public Schools, along with Music, and Gym for that matter.
ART - ART - ART - ART
After a long relaxing trip to Hawaii, I come home to this. This gigantor Bronco, with demon eyes.
Thank you Colorado for showing me the junk in his front trunk. I really need to see an anatomical Bronco package on my way to and from the airport.
Man. everybody hates this horse. i think its great! sure its ugly, sure its scary, sure it has red eyes, sure people died in the construction of it and were buried underneath it (legend?) but c'mon! its a giant blue horse with fire engine red eyes that stares at you as you go to the airport! i only wish smoke came out its nose.
i for one, like the fact that we are slowly becoming identified by our giant blue animals..maybe next we could get a giant blue penguin in writers' square, or a giant blue pelican next to the capitol. heck, i wish the pile of beans next to the highlands foot bridge was blue too.
these things are seriously a ton better than the kitschy crap that we usually see in our galleries, symbolizing our heritage, etc. to everyone who thinks that the horse (and the bear, by proxy) don't adequately represent our great state, i ask: "what do you want, a statue of some mountains?"
go horse!
The ratings for this thing crack me up. It's obviously a polarizing object. I happen to love it. I admit that the right side of my brain doesn't work for crap, and, despite formal European education, I do not have refined taste in art. I do, however, appreciate anything that has personality.
It's disturbing and looks more like a DND dragon than anything else. I love its horizon-polluting presence, clashing blue color, and especially glowing eyes. It surprises me every time I see it and it makes me laugh. I just can't hate something that fills me with some much positive emotion.
Good for kids? NO.
Way to advertise to the world that Denver is a total cow town.
This bronco's gotta go.
This thing freaks me out! It has scary glowing eyes! I can't even imagine what people say that have never been here before, while driving down Pena Blvd and see is? Also, why do we always have to promote the "cowboy" thing to everyone outside of the state? They all think we are cowboys! Really, we aren't. What is with Denver and blue animal sculptures? I even love horses, so I should like this right? Not the case.
scary....
First thing I saw when I came back from Hawaii myself...Freaked me out a little...
Someone died building this thing... it has to be possessed
Sweet baby Jesus, the first time I encountered this god forsaken atrocity I was approaching DIA at dawn. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The sun was rising in the east behind the sculpture, casting a foreboding, dark silhouette, akin to the scene in the horror film the EXORCIST where Father Merrin comes face to face with the Ancient pagan statue of the Demon Pazuzu in the North Iraq desert! Only this Mustang statue has GLOWING RED EYES! I actually laughed out loud at the sheer audacity of it!
Out of Wikipedia:
"The Sculptor, Luis Jimenez was killed on June 13, 2006, in his studio when the Mustang intended for Denver International Airport, fell on him severing an artery in his leg." How fucked up is that?
This design is truly a thing of nightmares, but some part of me smiles at the idea that this ugly monstrosity not only exists, but represents Denver to all who come and go via the airport. Why stop at this? We should get Tim Burton and H.R. Giger to redesign Downtown Denver!
Twisted!
I hate it.
Nasty, glowing red eyes.
Such a turn off.
I don't mind being from a cow town and I think that we should actually play that up a bit as it sets Denver apart from New York.
But, the horse is just awful.
The only good thing you can say about this piece of art is that it moved the DCPA aliens out of last place.
I love this damn sculpture! For one thing, it's already got an awesome story behind it. But the biggest reason I like it:
Everyone hates it.
I've never seen so much whining and complaining about a statue. It looks fairly out of place at DIA, but that's not a bad thing. I'd rather have something like this than some boring politically correct thing that no one notices. Any piece of artwork which killed it's creator is something to be reckoned with.
I have no idea whether I should rate this one star or five. Like many have said before, the obsession with this piece of crap is hilarious. Plus I love the outrageous story behind the crazy dude they commissioned to make. You can't make stuff like that up.
I'm not sure if it is comparable to a Bruce Campbell movie--so bad it's good. Or more like a Michael Bay film--so bad it's just bad. I'm leaning towards the latter. Somehow I don't think the "artist" intended either.
I'm just glad this wasn't around when I was a kid. This was the kind of thing that really would scare the hell out of me, to the point where I would fake sick in order to miss family trips requiring departure from DIA. WHAT IS UP with all the creepy art out there (aside from conspiracy theories)?
The first time I saw this monstrosity I started laughing hysterically - and almost drove off the road.
The second time I just cringed.
Really - do we need the mustang from hell with its glowing red eyes greeting visitors to our fair city/state.
I've read about the artist and am sure that he was very talented, so I'm not dissing him. It's just this hideous beast I have a problem with.
