In a treatise on the nature and function of sculpture, French artist Henri Laurens (1885-1954) once wrote, "Sculpture is not made for museums."
While Laurens' declaration might be warranted in certain circumstances, museums are a necessary and important venue for ex-periencing artwork that might otherwise never be made available to the general public.In "Three-Dimensional Utah: 100 Years of Sculpture in Utah," the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University gives Utahns the opportunity to experience - through sight and touch - the sculpture of some of the most prominent artists of Utah's past and present.
Steven Rosen, museum director and chief curator, has put together, along with his associates, "Three-Dimensional Utah," which includes both indoor and outdoor works. The exhibit runs through Sept. 8.
According to Rosen, the concept for the exhibition arose six years ago during a series of conversations concerning sculptors and sculpture. In the exhibit's essay, Rosen writes, "Specific development of the exhibition began three years ago during the process of creating a national inventory of outdoor sculpture for a program called Save Outdoor Sculpture (SOS)."
The exhibit includes 35 sculptors whose work - borrowed from private collections, galleries and other institutions - are examples of craftsmanship and imagination; each piece occupies space with visual aplomb.
Beginning with smaller works by Cyrus E. Dallin (1861-1944), Solon Borglum (1868-1922), Mahonri Mac-kintosh Young (1877-1957), Avard Fairbanks (1897-1987), Torlief S. Knaphus (1881-1965), Maurice Brooks (1908-70) and Alice Morrey Bailey (1903-), the exhibit illustrates how tuned in Utah artists were to their times. Many were trained in Europe, and numerous artists reached national prominence.
Through the Depression and into the postwar period, Rosen writes that innovative sculpture in the state tapered off, "but large-scale ensembles such as the facade sculpture on the recently renovated Cathedral of the Madeleine by Maurice and Millard Brooks, the `Monument to the Handcart Pioneers' on Temple Square by Torlief Knaphus, as well as plans and models for Young's `This is the Place Monument,' continued to keep sculptors active."
By the mid-1950s the visual conservatism of earlier generations began to wane. Many sculptors abandoned conventionality. College and university art departments across the state expanded their sculpture programs.
"Angelo Caravaglia (b. 1925), teaching at the University of Utah, brought to the forefront the spirit of European modernism characterized by agitated forms, combined materials and an avoidance of strictly human figures," writes Rosen.
The lion's share of "Three-Dimensional Utah" is devoted to this modernistic spirit, with pieces by such artists as Larry Elsner, Stephen Goldsmith, Neil Hadlock, Mary Ellen Hogle, Frank McEn-tire, Frank Nackos, Janet Shapero and James Young.
There is no question as to the quality or importance of the selected pieces in the exhibit. However, when viewed within the con-fines of the second phrase of the show's title, "100 Years of Sculpture in Utah," one is left wondering where certain sculptors have gone.
One misses the inclusion of Melvin Earl Cummings (1876-1936), who studied in Paris, apprenticed on the Salt Lake Temple and became one of America's leading animal sculptors.
Also, while Gutzon Borglum is mentioned in Rosen's essay, a sample of his work is missing. His "Conception" (marble, c. 1904, Springville Museum of Art) is one of the most impassioned busts to come out of Utah. It would have been a pleasure to see it.
Hughes Curtis (1904-72) was Utah's first serious cowboy sculptor. (M.M. Young did some, but you could count the number on one hand.) Curtis also helped create the first bronze foundry in Utah as well as personally instruct such prominent sculptors as Neil Had-lock and Grant Speed.
Another missing sculptor is Millard Fillmore Malin (1891-1974). Malin has statues all over Utah. His "Sugarhouse Monument" is one of the top three in the state, Cyrus Dallin's "Brigham Young Monument" and M.M. Young's "This is the Place Monument" being the other two.
Outside of Laura Lee Stay's "Reverence" there is no strictly figurative/realist sculpture from our contemporary period. (Perhaps Von Allen's "Walker" could be included.) This seems to imply that no important pieces are extant. Not so. It would have been good - not to mention fitting - to see a work or two by Grant Speed and Ed Fraughton, two of many realist sculptors working in the state.
The broad nature of the show's title would seem to require more "across the board" pieces for a complete presentation of Utah sculpture, yet, even with the omissions, "Three-Dimensional Utah: 100 Years of Sculpture" is an excellent show.
After its run at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, "Three-Dimensional Utah" will travel to the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University. The exhibit will begin Oct. 10 and run through Dec. 31.