It’s impossible to miss the imposing blue horse that rears up in a display of raw power and defiance as you approach Denver International Airport. This towering 32-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture, known as the “Blue Mustang,” stands sentinel over Peña Boulevard, its red eyes glowing intensely at the passing cars.
Locals have affectionately, and sometimes ironically, nicknamed this striking equine “Blucifer.” Whether loved, hated, or simply debated, the Blue Mustang, officially titled “Mustang,” has become a defining and often talked-about landmark of the airport.
“We see this fierce blue mustang as a protector of travelers, a guardian watching over this airport,” explains Stacey Stegman, DIA’s Senior Vice President of Communications, Marketing, and Customer Service.
Denver Airport is no stranger to intrigue and speculation, even beyond the recent challenges with the Great Hall reconstruction. Numerous conspiracy theories swirl around the airport, ranging from Freemason connections to secret UFO hangars and apocalyptic symbolism woven into the terminal’s design. The Blue Mustang, alongside certain murals and gargoyles within the airport, sometimes fuels these very speculations.
Adam Horst, a resident of Aurora, views the sculpture as a uniquely quirky and memorable welcome to Colorado. “The mustang is inherently Colorado,” he notes, “but then the red eyes and blue color palette add this unexpected, almost jarring twist.”
The Killer Horse? Unraveling the Myths
Horst, among many others, was curious about the inspiration behind artist Luis Jiménez’s Blue Mustang and the tragic circumstances surrounding its creation, specifically “what exactly happened with the artist and the ultimate demise of him.”
The grim truth is that the Blue Mustang did, in a way, contribute to the death of its creator. But is the sculpture truly cursed?
Luis Jiménez tragically passed away in 2006 at the age of 65 during the creation process. A section of the Blue Mustang sculpture detached while he was working, severing an artery in his leg and leading to his death from blood loss.
The colossal sculpture is constructed from three primary parts: the head, the torso, and the hindquarters. Jiménez had just declared the head section complete shortly before the accident.
Despite the tragedy and numerous delays, including legal disputes, Jiménez’s studio ultimately completed the Blue Mustang. It was finally installed and unveiled to the public on February 11, 2008, more than fifteen years after its initial commission.
Decoding the Red Eyes of the Blue Mustang
Michael “Gunner” Gunstanson from Lakewood raised another common question: “who changes the light bulbs in the eyes of the big blue horse?” Debunking any supernatural interpretations, the piercing red eyes are simply LED flood lights, not gateways to another dimension or laser emitters. The airport’s electrical team has replaced them only twice in the past seven years, according to airport authorities.
These often-cited “demonic” red eyes are, in fact, a heartfelt homage to the artist’s father.
Luis Jiménez was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1940. As a young boy, he apprenticed at his father’s neon sign shop, learning the crafts of welding and painting.
His widow, Susan Jiménez, recounts his frequent stories of working alongside his father, recalling how he would return home with hands marked by his labor. His father’s philosophy was, “This is how he learns,” Susan shared, emphasizing the strong tradition of hands-on craftsmanship that shaped his upbringing.
Luis Jiménez pursued architecture initially and later fine arts at the University of Texas. He further refined his artistic skills in Mexico City and New York. However, the hands-on approach he learned from his father remained fundamental to his artistic process, even as he began experimenting with fiberglass in the 1960s.
“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,” Jiménez explained in a video for the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., which houses several of his works, including “Vaquero,” a cowboy riding a blue bucking horse. “I didn’t want to go for that art process.”
Susan acknowledges the intense focus on the Blue Mustang’s eyes. She recalls an incident when Luis was home alone at night and heard a noise in the living room. Investigating, he was startled by “these two eyes” in the darkness. “And he said the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.”
Initially fearing an intruder, he soon recognized a familiar presence. It was Black Jack, their horse and the model for the Blue Mustang, who had somehow wandered into their living room.
“And so [do the eyes] have anything to do with that incident and this kind of you’re afraid of something but then it’s OK [because you realize] it is familiar,” she pondered. “I don’t know. But the eyes do not have any evil intent whatsoever.”
The Distinctive Blue Hue: More Than Just a Color
Dale Kronkright, Head of Conservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, emphasizes Jiménez’s mastery of color. “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 explains.
Kronkright worked on the preservation of several Jiménez sculptures, including the Blue Mustang. The artist frequently incorporated metallic flakes, the shimmering quality often seen in lowrider cars, into his artwork.
While some critics deemed his style overly flamboyant, others recognized his vibrant, shimmering art as a powerful representation of the Chicano and working-class experience in the American West, a tribute to his own heritage. Kronkright sees this significance in the Blue Mustang, considering it a work of brilliance.
“My takeaway from Mustang is defiance, this absolute expression of identity, having a place, standing strong, being fiery, being gigantic,” Kronkright interprets.
The sheer scale of the Blue Mustang presented significant engineering challenges for Jiménez, as it was his largest undertaking. Kronkright remembers a phone conversation where Jiménez humorously commented about the sculpture’s demanding nature: “He said, ‘You know, this work is gonna kill me.’”
Susan Jiménez, now managing her late husband’s estate, felt it was crucial to complete the Blue Mustang, using the original paint formulas Luis had developed. “It was his life’s work,” she states. “He was a mature artist at that point. He got the commission in ’92. And it was years of living with this sculpture.”
Early sketches even depicted the Mustang in yellow or pink. However, Luis ultimately settled on blue, inspired by Black Jack, his blue Appaloosa horse.
Enduring Controversy and Public Opinion
The Blue Mustang’s striking blue color and glowing red eyes sparked controversy from its inception. A Facebook page titled “DIA’s Heinous Blue Mustang Has Got to Go” even emerged. However, as the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity. Colleen Donohoe, DIA’s public art manager, appreciates the ongoing conversations surrounding the artwork.
“There are many public art collections that people don’t discuss, so in that sense, we are fortunate,” she notes. “We see him as something more than just controversial.”
The airport still receives mixed reactions to the Blue Mustang. Critics express concerns ranging from “he scares our children” to humorous suggestions like “you should paint him orange like the Broncos.”
The airport’s public art policy dictates that artworks remain on public display for at least five years after installation. This period has long since passed for the Blue Mustang.
Despite public scrutiny, the Blue Mustang has also withstood the elements – rain, hail, intense winds – in what conservators describe as an extreme environment for art. Recently, it even endured an act of vandalism when someone spray-painted graffiti on its lower legs. Fortunately, the airport was able to remove the graffiti without causing damage. Denver has insured this iconic blue steed for $2 million, according to the finance department, ensuring its continued resilience against the elements and time.
DIA’s Stacey Stegman believes there would be significant public outcry if the airport attempted to remove the Blue Mustang now.
Michael Gunstanson jokingly declared he would “lead the charge on that” to keep it.
Stegman responded in kind, “You and I will lay on the ground together. We’ll chain ourselves to Mustang, and he’s not going anywhere.”
