Utah Arts & Museums announces the exhibition “People of Utah 1892-2011” on the 4th Floor of the Utah State Capitol. The exhibition runs through July 12, 2013. Capitol hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Capitol is located at 350 N. State Street in Salt Lake City. The Visitor Center can be reached at 801-538-1800 or capitoltours@utah.gov.
The artworks are selected portraits from the Utah State Fine Art Collection and reflect a beautifully diverse sampling of the people of Utah and Utah’s artists. The pieces demonstrate a variety of styles, from 19th-century painting to 21st-century mixed media on canvas and bronze sculpture.
“It’s fitting that this exhibition should be on display in the ‘People’s House,’ ” said Margaret Hunt, Director of Utah Arts & Museums. “These works give a face to the rich heritage of people who were and are Utah.”
Artists in the exhibition include Gordon Cope, Downy Doxey, Brian Kershisnik, Mary H. Teasdel and William J. Parkinson, among others. Mary H. Teasdel was a proficient Utah portraitist in oils, watercolor, and pastel. She exhibited in the Paris Salon, becoming the second Utahn and the first woman painter from Utah to do so. Gordon Cope studied the Old Masters in Europe from 1924-1928. Upon returning to Utah, Cope quickly became recognized as a major Utah artist of the Great Depression and created art for the Works Projects Administration (WPA) in the Public Works of Art Project in 1933.
The Utah State Fine Art Collection began in 1899, when the 3rd Utah Legislature passed Senate Bill 89, creating the Utah Art Institute. The Utah State Fine Art Collection is sometimes called the “Alice Art Collection” after Representative Alice Merrill Horne, who first sponsored the bill. The Utah Art Institute, now the Utah Division of Arts and Museums, is the oldest state-sponsored arts organization in the United States. Thanks to the efforts of the Collection Acquisition Committee and generous donations from patrons and artists, the Utah State Fine Art Collection purchases and acquires new artwork by Utah artists every year.