CELEBRATING 10 years MARCIA AND JOHN PRICE MUSEUM BUILDING quarterly july • aug • sept 2011 from the director dear members and friends... It is with pride and gratitude that I write this letter on the tenth anniversary of the beautiful and award-winning Marcia and John Price Museum Building. Over the past decade, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors into its galleries, facilitating magical connections between viewer and artwork. This would not be possible without the generous support of Marcia and 2011 UMFA Board John Price, as well as the community we love and are proud of Directors to serve. Marcia Price, Chair Jess Agraz I am pleased to announce that George Lindsey has been appointed to the new position of UMFA Associate Director Ron Allen for Administration. In this important role, George will provide Cynthia Sue Anderson oversight and administrative support to all Museum staff and Robert F. Bennett its operations. Toni Bloomberg Jim Bradley* Summer is upon us, and what a season it will be! On July 21, we are delighted to present a celebration of the art Fred Esplin* of LeConte Stewart, a much-loved Utah artist and former Suzanne Ferry University of Utah professor, in collaboration with the Church Lynn Fey History Museum. Join us to feast your eyes on more than John H. Firmage 200 powerful Regionalist scenes in these joint exhibitions. Jonathan Freedman Clark P. Giles At the UMFA we strive to create an active, engaging, and varied array of programs, offering visitors an opportunity to Wesley G. Howell, Jr. experience new ideas and think differently about the world. Marian Iwasaki In the end, we want our visitors—especially our members— John C. Jarman to have a sense of ownership of the UMFA. Please always Lucinda L. Kindred feel free to share your feedback with us. We want to hear Georgianna Knudson from you! Mihail S. Lari I hope to see you in the galleries soon. Jack Livingood Michele Mattsson* W. Brent Maxfield Kathie Miller Nicole Mouskondis Gretchen Dietrich, Executive Director Joseph J. Palmer David Pershing* On the cover: The Marcia and John Price Museum Building. The building opened to the public in 2001. Photo courtesy of Scott Zimmerman and Rashelle Perry Monica Holt. Chris Redgrave Robert H. Rose Ann B. Scott Joanne F. Shiebler Martha Siggard* Diane Stewart The UMFA gratefully acknowledges the continuing support it receives from the University of Naoma Tate Utah, Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts & Parks Program, Utah Arts Council, Salt Lake City Arts Council, R. Harold Burton Foundation, C. Comstock Clayton Foundation, Estate of Aurelia B. Cahoon, Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation, Anne M. and David S. Dolowitz, Helene Elizabeth F. Tozer Druke Shaw Family, Katherine W. Dumke & Ezekiel R. Dumke, Jr. Foundation, George S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, Marriner S. Eccles Foundation, William Randolph Hearst Raymond Foundation, Emma Eccles Jones Foundation, Wilma T. Gibson Family, Jeanette and O. Ernest Tymas-Jones* Grua, Jr. Family, Richard and Shirley Hemingway Foundation, Estate of John W. and Helen B. Jarman, National Endowment for the Arts, LaReta C. Madsen Family , Ray, Quinney Marva Warnock & Nebeker Foundation, John & Marcia Price Family Foundation, S. J. & Jessie E. Quinney Foundation, Joseph & Evelyn Rosenblatt Family Foundation, George Q. Morris Foundation, Estate of E. Frank Sanguinetti, Ms. Suzanne M. Scott, State Office of Education, State Office of Jenny Wilson Museum Services, Paul L. & Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, UMFA National Leadership Council, Benefit Council, Docent Council, Special Exhibitions Council, Friends of the Art Museum, * Ex-Officio Young Benefactors, Friends of Utah & Western Art and UMFA Members. tenth anniversary The UMFA is pleased to announce its tenth anniversary in the Marcia and John Price Museum Building! ”Over the past decade it has been a pleasure to see the beautiful UMFA grow in stature and begin to fulfill its promise. It has been a privilege to work with the University, the director, and the fine staff and board to continually meet new goals of excellence.“ ~ Marcia Price Above: Ambassador John Price and Marcia Price. Architectural rendering of the new museum building. The building has been a setting for art, education, music conversation, reflection and celebration since opening to the public in 2001. Steven Streeter photos. Wedding image: Jessica Kettle Photography Right: 1998 article from the University of Utah’s development newsletter, Generations of Excellence. The article features the groundbreaking of the new building and highlights the participation of Price grandchildren Alexandra Wallin and Garrett Price. exhibitions PRESENTING SPONSORS: July 21, 2011– January 15, 2012 S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation In a groundbreaking collaboration, the UMFA teamed up Ray, Quinney & with the Church History Museum to stage the largest joint Nebeker Foundation exhibition ever mounted of Utah artist LeConte Stewart’s work. With a combined total of over 200 paintings and SPONSORS: works on paper selected from museums and private Charles Redd Center collections across the West, each venue will feature for Western Studies masterworks rarely seen in public, focusing on the most creative and dynamic period of Stewart’s long career. The Sam & Diane Stewart Family The UMFA’s exhibition LeConte Stewart: Depression Era Foundation Art examines defining works created during the Great Depression, a period when the artist painted the “raw side of life,” juxtaposing thematic images of progress with the human consequences of economic upheaval. Farms and homes are depicted in stark, urban scenes devoid of human activity, with bold shapes and unfamiliar lighting capturing UMFA Special a mood of isolation and loneliness. Stewart’s vision of the Exhibitions Council Great Depression in the 1930s sets his work apart from his peers, and places it within the broader context of American Scene painting of the time. IN COLLABORATION In the companion exhibition LeConte Stewart: Soul of Rural WITH: Utah, the Church History Museum surveys a large body of Stewart’s landscape paintings with a special emphasis on rural Utah. Farmhouses, barns, and fields are depicted in rich tones with thick impasto and loose brushstrokes; they are familiar scenes of the western environment. It is a place in which Stewart found not only the isolation he sought throughout his life, but a spirit in the land that was of solace to him. LeConte Stewart, American (1891-1990), The exhibitions will be accompanied by a variety of public Private Car, 1937, oil on canvas, programming and online resources. Please check detail, courtesy of the Church History Museum www.umfa.utah.edu for more information. exhibitions Right: Helen Levitt, Untitled (two seated women talking), 1935- 1945, gelatin silver print, UMFA 2003.15.2. Gift of William and Mimi Levitt, collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah © Estate of Helen Levitt, Courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. Extended through July 17, 2011 Due to popular demand, the UMFA extended the run of Helen Levitt Photographs. Take advantage of the opportunity to see works by this important photographer. Final Light V. Douglas Snow in Retrospect September 1, 2011 – January 8, 2012 The Utah Museum of Fine Arts and Salt Lake Art Center V. Douglas Snow, American, are pleased to present Final Light: V. Douglas Snow in Desert Landscape, oil painting, Retrospect, a collaborative exhibition celebrating the work detail, National Endowment for of eminent Utah artist, V. Douglas Snow (1927-2009). the Arts. UMFA # 1980.123 Museum visitors and long-time admirers will have the opportunity to encounter Snow’s large body of work at IN two local art venues. For more information please visit COLLABORATION www.umfa.utah.edu. WITH: September 15, 2011 – January 8, 2012 Showcasing a diverse range of artworks from around the world, Color is an exhibition that explores the powerful relationship of color to artists and audiences. Located in the Emma Eccles Jones Education Gallery, Color presents over twenty pieces that focus on color as a connector across cultures and time, and includes works by such artists as Robert Motherwell, Alex Katz, and Anna Campbell Bliss. Visitors will have the opportunity to use a hands-on, in-gallery collage wall to create their own color Walter Askin, American, compositions. Color is funded as part of the UMFA’s Sycronized Ski Team, 2001, color Art in a Box program and is presented in conjunction lithograph, wove paper, gift of with the debut of a new classroom box that helps teachers the Department of Visual Art, Brigham Young University. across Utah incorporate color into their curriculum. UMFA # 2003.5.1.6 exhibitions Splendid Heritage A Traveling Exhibition Above left to right: Osage In January 2009, the UMFA premiered its landmark Councilman Eddy Red Eagle, Gretchen Dietrich, Dr. Robert exhibition Splendid Heritage: Perspectives on American Indian Archibald, Cathy Archibald, Art. From the private collection of John and Marva John Warnock, Marva Warnock, Warnock, Splendid Heritage was curated by Bernadette Vann Bighorse, and Clinton Nagy Brown, retired Curator of African, Oceanic and New World Art at the UMFA, and Emma Hansen, Senior Curator of the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Below: UMFA Executive Center. Featuring 145 objects of unique artistry and Director Gretchen Dietrich speaks at the Splendid Heritage powerful cultural expression, this world-class exhibition opening, Missouri History presented eighteenth and nineteenth century objects Museum, February 2011 created by Plains, Plateau, and Northeastern American Indians to more than 50,000 visitors in Salt Lake City. Following its premiere, Splendid Heritage traveled to two other venues, where many more children and adults were able to enjoy the display. From May through October 2010, more than 182,000 visitors attended Splendid Heritage at the Plains Indian Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (BBHC) in Cody, Wyoming.