- Three new exhibits in Salt Lake City are an interesting mixture of the past, present and future - not only because of the artists being spotlighted but also because of the styles represented.
- The exhibit at the Atrium Gallery focuses on women who made significant contributions to the visual arts in the early years of Utah's history. It features works by 11 women artists: Corinne Adams, Florence Christensen, Florence Drake, Irene Fletcher, Rose Hartwell, Olive Jensen, Rose Howard Salisbury, Myra Louise Sawyers, Ruth Smith, Mary Teasdale and Florence Ware.While many of the works have been executed in the traditional styles of the period, others are somewhat prophetic of future styles. Fletcher's oil "The Mask," Teasdale's watercolor "Monday Washing," Sawyers' pastel "Helen Kimball" and Ware's oil "Portrait on the Beach" would fit right in with an exhibition by today's artists.
Selected from the State Fine Art Collection, these works were part of a 1985 exhibition held at the Chase Home in Liberty Park. It was curated by the Utah Women's History Association.
The show remains at the Salt Lake City Public Library, 209 E. Fifth South, through July 18.
- In "Utah 89: Works on Paper" at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the stylistic pendulum swings dramatically from photo-realism to non-objective art and moves through a variety of styles on its way.
At one end are highly representational works by Robert G. Carawan, Arthur B. Clarke, Glen Foy, Diana Garff Gardiner, Kent Goodliffe, Jean Russell, Todd Stilson and Jed Thomas.
At the other are abstractions by Allen Bishop, Carolyn Coalson, Wayne Corliss, Steven K. Griffin, Jim Jacobs, Barbara Madsen and Mark Petersen.
And in between are highly imaginative and personal styles of Wulf Barsch, Dale Bryner, Jenni Christensen, Steven Griffin, Wayne Kimball, Dottie Miles, Soheila Tavallaei and others.
Perhaps there has never been a time in the history of art when so many varied styles have been considered "acceptable." That's exciting to me. Artists now have the freedom to move back or forward in time to explore whatever styles intrigue them.
But that doesn't mean that their works are going to end up in a show like "Utah 89: Works on Paper." In fact, 219 Utah artists submitted 378 entries for this show; only 49 works by 44 artists were accepted.
Guest jurors for this show were Paul Cummings, adjunct curator of drawings for the Whitney Museum of American Art; and William Whitaker, painter and former art professor at Brigham Young University.
In his juror's statement, Cummings wrote, "The drawings one sees in Utah are not reflections, nor are they collected efforts grafted onto the culture: they are the substance of the culture."
Responding to the jurors' recommendations, the Visual Arts Committee of the Utah Arts Council purchased nine works on paper by Carolyn Coalson, Diana Garff Gardiner, Jim Jacobs, Barbara Madsen, Dottie Miles, Afton B. Smith, Todd Stilson, Jed Thomas and Day Christensen/Chris Young. A cash award of $200 was presented to Mark Petersen for "Still Life, Cohab Canyon."
With only 49 works on display, the exhibit almost loses itself in the large main gallery. The room has no partitions, only a few display cases showing off pages from Christensen's and Young's collaborative book.
Although lacking in quantity, the show makes it big in quality. There are evidences all around of impeccable craftsmanship - just look at Kent Goodliffe's Prismacolors, Wayne Kimball's lithography, and Wulf Barsch's triptych, "Portals to the Desert."
Even the photo-realistic works are not merely copies of objects; each artist has successfully inbued them with his own personality.
The exhibit continues at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts through August 13. UMFA is located on the University of Utah campus. For more information, call 581-7332.
- Valoy Eaton's world is different from those of us who survive in urban communities. A resident of Heber City, he lives smack-dab in the middle of his subject matter - open landscape and rural life.
One-man shows by this popular artist are infrequent, so news travels fast when one comes around. His current one, cleverly titled "Chicken-Hearted Eaton," is now gracing the walls of the F. Weixler Gallery, 132 "E" Street, in Salt Lake City.
Many of the oils and watercolors in this show feature chickens. Sometimes, they're the center of interest. Other times, they're just part of the rural environs.
Eaton's paintings are highly popular. And one reason they are popular is because of something that happened to him when he was a small boy.
He said, "I remember standing under a huge mulberry tree by our house and marveling at the beauty of the sunlight flickering through the leaves and branches and hitting the ground below."
He added that he has been caught up with the beauty of sunlight and shadow ever since.
And as far as I'm concerned, this is one of the ingredients that make his work so visually palatable.
Another integral part of his painting is his belief that some of the most profound subjects are found in everyday occurrences when living close to nature. A young woman, dappled with sunlight, feeds the chickens; children gather around the barrels of apples to become the "official tasters"; two young girls ride their horse through a field of hollyhocks.
But there are also paintings void of the human element. They focus on Utah landscape bathed in a variety of moods; they successfully capture momentary light-and-shadow situations that most artists overlook. His "Foothill Cottonwoods" is a superb example of this.
Eaton has painted long enough that he doesn't concern himself with how to hold a brush, how to apply the paint, etc. Those things are second nature to him. More important, however, is mixing the right color and the right value, and then applying it in the right place with feeling and sensitivity.
The exhibit continues at the F. Weixler Gallery (534-1014) through July. Also featured are works by gallery regulars Karl Thomas, Dennis Smith, Harrison Groutage and Earl Jones.