PAINTERS OF UTAH’S CANYONS AND DESERTS
Famous movie director John Ford once emphatically exclaimed, “ . . .Monument Valleywasmy greatest star.”But long before Ford lionized these great icons, paintings of the sweeping desert and colorful canyon country of Utah’s plateau province had captured the popular imagination of American and European audiences.
contrasts between painters who called Utah home and those who explored and visited. Starting with the rich visual images of Native American petroglyphs, the book then looks at the lively anecdotes of the “artists as explorers,” including John Wesley Powell’s harrowing trip down the Colorado River, artist Solomon Nunes Carvalho’s recovery from the brink of starvation, and artist Richard Kern’s death at the hands of the Paiutes. ThomasMoran is prominent in this history with dramatic lithographs and his own exploration of the Zion region.
Love of the western landscape has to do with the capacity of the viewer to experience vast space. To appreciate the desert terrain, one has to be comfortable with an inscrutable universe. Whether existential or spiritual, these themes are evoked in the modern paintings of Maynard Dixon, Conrad Buff, Georgia O’Keeffe, andMax Ernst,who are amongmany visiting artists successfully challenged by this landscape.
Utah artist Alfred Lambourne was the first artist to paint in Zion, and Henry L. A. Culmer was the first to paint the natural bridges. Utah artists recorded the natural beauty of the parks in the 1920s and the stark influence of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Today’s modern and traditional artists mix it up, employing classical methods and conventions, often with flagrant juxtapositions, to convey political, existential, or psychological themes. V. Douglas Snow, Gary E. Smith, and Ed Mell are among a growing group of nationally known artists whose work is inspired by the Utah Red Rock.
In all, this is an informative and visually stunning compilation of Art in Utah, detailing its profound influence on western and American culture.
Donna L. Poulton is an Associate Curator of Utah and Western Art at the University of Utah’s Museum of Fine Arts. She studied at the Boston University extension in Germany and received her PhD from BrighamYoung University. She has juried and curated many exhibitions, including the Olympic Exhibition of Utah Art. Dr. Poulton has written articles on Utah and Western Art, is the co-author of Utah Art, Utah Artists, and has recently completed a manuscript on Reuben Kirkham, an early Utah pioneer artist. She has taught Utah art history at the University of Utah and has served on the boards of several arts organizations. Dr. Poulton has also filmed extensive interviews with numerous Utah artists, produced commercial videos on Utah art, and consulted with private art collectors and galleries.
Vern G. Swanson is a native of Central Point, Oregon. He graduated from Brigham Young University (BA), University of Utah (MA), and University of London (PhD) in art history. He started his career at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (1969–70), taught art and art history at Auburn University as an Assistant Professor (1972–75), and was employed atWasatch Bronzeworks in Lehi (1975–78). Since 1980, Dr. Swanson has been the director of the Springville Museum of Art, has helped the museum's art collection of Utah and Russian art grow, and has contributed toward the construction of a new wing, dedicated in 2004.
Dr. Swanson has published fourteen art history books as sole or joint author. Five of these have been on Utah art, with several in collaborationwith Drs. Robert Olpin,WilliamSeifrit, and Donna Poulton. In 2006, he published a major tome Dynasty of the Holy Grail and in 2007, his third and largest book, Soviet Impressionist Painting. He is now researching for his next two books, “John Hafen: Faithful Artist” and“The Chiasmatic Atonement.”
From the Back Cover
PAINTERS OF UTAH’S CANYONS AND DESERTS
Famous movie director John Ford once emphatically exclaimed, “ . . .Monument Valleywasmy greatest star.”But long before Ford lionized these great icons, paintings of the sweeping desert and colorful canyon country of Utah’s plateau province had captured the popular imagination of American and European audiences.
contrasts between painters who called Utah home and those who explored and visited. Starting with the rich visual images of Native American petroglyphs, the book then looks at the lively anecdotes of the “artists as explorers,” including John Wesley Powell’s harrowing trip down the Colorado River, artist Solomon Nunes Carvalho’srecovery from the brink of starvation, and artist Richard Kern’s death at the hands of the Paiutes. ThomasMoran is prominent in this history with dramatic lithographs and his own exploration of the Zion region.
Love of the western landscape has to do with the capacity of the viewer to experience vast space. To appreciate the desert terrain, one has to be comfortable with an inscrutable universe. Whether existential or spiritual, these themes are evoked in the modern paintings of Maynard Dixon, Conrad Buff, Georgia O’Keeffe, andMax Ernst,who are amongmany visiting artists successfully challenged by this landscape.
Utah artist Alfred Lambourne was the first artist to paint in Zion, and Henry L. A. Culmer was the first to paint the natural bridges. Utah artists recorded the natural beauty of the parks in the 1920s and the stark influence of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Today’s modern and traditional artists mix it up, employing classical methods and conventions, often with flagrant juxtapositions, to convey political, existential, or psychological themes. V. Douglas Snow, Gary E. Smith, and Ed Mell are among a growing group of nationally known artists whose work is inspired by the Utah Red Rock.
In all, this is an informative and visually stunning compilation of Art in Utah, detailing its profound influence on western and American culture.
Donna L. Poulton is an Associate Curator of Utah and Western Art at the University of Utah’s Museum of Fine Arts. She studied at the Boston University extension in Germany and received her PhD from BrighamYoung University. She has juried and curated many exhibitions, including the Olympic Exhibition of Utah Art. Dr. Poulton has written articles on Utah and Western Art, is the co-author of Utah Art, Utah Artists, and has recently completed a manuscript on Reuben Kirkham, an early Utah pioneer artist. She has taught Utah art history at the University of Utah and has served on the boards of several arts organizations. Dr. Poulton has also filmed extensive interviews with numerous Utah artists, produced commercial videos on Utah art, and consulted with private art collectors and galleries.
Vern G. Swanson is a native of Central Point, Oregon. He graduated from Brigham Young University (BA), University of Utah (MA), and University of London (PhD) in art history. He started his career at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (1969–70), taught art and art history at Auburn University as an Assistant Professor (1972–75), and was employed atWasatch Bronzeworks in Lehi (1975–78). Since 1980, Dr. Swanson has been the director of the Springville Museum of Art, has helped the museum's art collection of Utah and Russian art grow, and has contributed toward the construction of a new wing, dedicated in 2004.
Dr. Swanson has published fourteen art history books as sole or joint author. Five of these have been on Utah art, with several in collaborationwith Drs. Robert Olpin,WilliamSeifrit, and Donna Poulton. In 2006, he published a major tome Dynasty of the Holy Grail and in 2007, his third and largest book, Soviet Impressionist Painting. He is now researching for his next two books, “John Hafen: Faithful Artist” and“The Chiasmatic Atonement.”
About the Author
Donna L. Poulton is Associate Curator of Utah and Western Art at the University of Utah's Museum of Fine Arts. She has written articles on Utah and Western art, and is the coauthor of Utah Art, Utah Artists. She lives in Salt Lake City.
Vern G. Swanson has been the director of the Springville, Utah, Museum of Art since 1980. He has published fourteen art history books as sole or joint author, five of these on Utah art, a major tome titled Dynasty of the Holy Grail, and Soviet Impressionist Painting. He lives in Springville, Utah.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The authors have wisely organized the book into three parts, each with subcategories:
―PART 1: Utah’s Red Rock, 1848–1970. The first six chapters begin with the identification of those early survey artists like Richard H. Kern, Frederick Dellenbaugh, Thomas Moran, and others who initially penetrated and explored a heretofore unknown region, bringing back testament to the American public about extraordinary landscapes. Prior to the explorer artists, however, early pioneer artists such as Alfred Lambourne and George Ottinger had already put down roots and were painting in Utah. Successive chapters discuss the role northern and southern Utah artists played in documenting the region. Finally, the last chapter identifies visiting artists like Maynard Dixon, Conrad Buff, Birger Sandzén, James Swinnerton, Edgar Payne, Milford Zornes, and others.
―PART 2: Utah’s Plateau Parks and Monuments, 1900–Present. These four chapters center on those artists who havestaked out Utah’s national parks and monuments; Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef, the Grand Staircase-Escalante, and the little known backcountry. Such noted artists as Gunnar Widforss, Franz Bischoff, Georgia O’Keeffe, and surrealist Max Ernst are profiled along with a number of lesser known artists from 1900 to the present.
―PART 3: Utah’s Continuing Allure, 1960–Present. The last two chapters explore the continuing allure of the region, looking at both those contemporary artists who continue tending the flame in the tradition of realism and those who take a more edgy, conceptual approach. Among those artists are Utah resident Gary Ernest Smith and Phoenix-based Ed Mell. Extensive endnotes at the conclusion of the text offer additional information about the painters and their backgrounds.
