Anytime is the perfect time to visit the Springville Museum of Art. Even if you stop by on Monday when the museum is closed, all is not lost. You can enjoy viewing the dozen or so sculptures that dot the grounds.
While the sculpture might be the appetizer, the main course is inside the museum. Rotating shows fill three galleries on the main floor and one on the second, including:- "Old Favorites: American Collection" in the Step-Down Gallery.
Although the number of works here might seem small - a total of 21 - these paintings are early, significant acquisitions. Most of them were painted by artists outside Utah who participated in the annual Spring Exhibition. Fifteen were gifts from the sophomore, junior and senior classes of Springville High School.
For high school students to buy and donate paintings is unusual indeed. But students in the 1920s and 1930s were extremely interested in collecting art for the school. Each year, they held a contest to elect an "art queen." They paid a penny a vote, and were allowed to cast as many votes as they wanted. The school then matched that money, and a painting was purchased from the Spring Exhibition, a show that attracted artists from across the country.
- "Celebration of Color: Oil Paintings by Jeanne Leighton-Lundberg."
The Southeast Gallery comes alive with the vivid colors and intricate patterns of Leighton-Lundberg's oil paintings. The one-woman show is made up of 12 large canvases of interior scenes.
The artist "contradicts" rules of art as she places an abundance of floral bouquets, bowls of fruits and other objects over table cloths resembling crazy quilts. The only places where the eye finds respite is in the cool faces of people who slowly surface. Backgrounds are often brighter than the objects placed on them; and there is no one center of interest.
She delights in breaking rules. But what's remarkable is she gets away with it; her paintings work. Although eye-boggling, they're a visual celebration of colors, pattern and design.
Leighton-Lundberg says she's a "maximalist," because she fills every inch of the canvas with symbols.
Her paintings reflect her philosophy that life is abundant and complex. "Everything that is created has a pattern," she says. "There's a genetic code which seals patterns into us, and there are those patterns we have chosen to invite into our lives. Life's events have patterns as well." She invites the viewer to sort out the patterns in her paintings much as he would do in life.
Perhaps my life is not as complex as the artist's. I especially enjoyed "Family in Blue,"a painting containing only a small rectangle of warm color in the upper half of the painting. The rest is bathed in cool, less intense colors.
- "Howard Kearns and Hughes Curtis Retrospectives" in the South Gallery.
The oils and watercolors by Kearns reflect the genre of the Depression era. They contain grayed-out color and simple form.
Kearns was born in Springville in 1907, later attending school at BYU and in California. A gifted musician, he used this talent to pay for his painting career. His promising painting career ended abruptly with his untimely death in 1947 at the age of 40.
Kearns' best friend was Western sculptor Hughes Curtis, so it's appropriate that the works of these two artists be exhibited together.
Curtis was a barber by profession and a sculptor by inclination. He was Utah's first "cowboy-Western" sculptor as well as the first person to build a bronze foundry in the state. Although he did not receive extensive training in sculpting, his keen interest in cowboys and Indians brought quality and authenticity to his work.
- Smaller works from the Lund-Wasmer Collection donated to the museum currently hang in the Works on Paper Gallery, second level, where they will remain until Sept. 3. Rose Ann Peterson will then exhibit her watercolors from Sept. 3 through Oct. 1. The other three exhibits listed above continue through Sept. 12.
- All but one of the galleries on the second floor are devoted to the Utah Art Collection: Work from 1862-1899 in the Central Gallery; 1900-1919 in the Upper Southeast Gallery; 1920-1939 in the Steed Gallery; 1940-1969 in the Upper Clyde Gallery and 1970-1990 in the Grand Gallery (1970-1990).
If you haven't taken a look at the museum's permanent collection in the last few years, you're in for a pleasant surprise. For 76 years (from 1903 through 1979), the museum collected only 507 pieces. Of those, 154 had been purchased, six were trades and 347 were gifts. And only about half of them were works by Utah artists.
But things changed abruptly when dynamic Vern Swanson took over as the museum's new director in 1980. During a 12-year period, he has been instrumental in adding 948 artworks to the collection (appraised at $2 million). A detailed listing of them shows that 83 were museum purchases, 38 were trades and 827 were gifts.
"When I came," Swanson said, "there were lots of weak areas in our permanent collection. We've just taken them one at a time."
He added that the only weak area now is the museum's works on paper (black and white). And Swanson will continue bird-dogging until he sniffs out and retrieves significant works to round out that collection.
Anyone who knows Swanson realizes that he will never reach the point at the museum when he'll sit back and say, "My work is done." He has formulated plans for an additional wing. Until that begins, he's wasting no time having dirt hauled from under the museum to make room for more storage - and a women's dressing room.
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The Springville Museum of Art is located at 126 E. 400 South, 489-9434. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday (until 9 p.m. on Wednesday). Also Sunday from 2-5 p.m.