| St.
George Art Museum
 August
25, 2008 through January 24, 2009
"A Century of Sanctuary" Art Exhibition featuring
art and artists of Zion National Park both past and present opened at
the St. George Art Museum August 25, 2008. Roland Lee's painting "West
Temple" owned by the Zion Natural History Association is displayed
as part of the historical element of the exhibit. That painting was
used as the original logo image for the ZNHA on their letterhead and
business papers for many years. Roland's painting "Zion's Great
Arch" a 24" x 29' watercolor is featured in the accompanying
book and catalog, "A Century of Sanctuary" the Art of of Zion
National Park.
Also included in the book is an essay by Roland Lee called
"Eyes of the
Beholder: Thirty Years of Painting Zion" along with
a question and answer interview with editor Pam Frazier.
Amazon
Book Review by Scott Lloyd
 |
Over 70
Paintings by noted historic artists of Zion National Park are
featured on the Mezzanine level of the St. George Art Museum.
The paintings are displayed in chronological sequence from the
1800's to the modern era. The photo at left shows a sequence from
the 1930's.
Paintings
left to right: John Henry Moser, Red Butte River ; Lewis Ramsey,
Towers of the Virgin; Lewis Ramsey, the Entrance to Zion, 1936;
Maynard Dixon, High in the Morning, 1933; Maynard Dixon, Dianan's
throne, 1934; Maynard Dixon, Cliffs of Zion, 1940; Maynard Dixon,
Fields of Toquerville, 1933; Ranch Kimball, Entrance to Zion's,
1934. |
St. George Art Museum Press Release: Zion National Park is celebrating
its 100th anniversary in 2009. To mark this historic event, the St. George
Art Museum has partnered with Zion Natural History Association, Zion National
Park, and the St. George Area Convention and Visitors Bureau to launch
an exhibit entitled Zion National Park: A Century of Sanctuary. This three-part
exhibit will be on display at the St. George Art Museum from August 25,
2008 to January 24, 2009. Visitors will experience Zion Canyon, which
in the last 100 years has gone from a barely-accessible hidden treasure
to an American icon averaging more than two and a half million visitors
annually, through the eyes of artists from across the country and over
more than a century.
The first part of the exhibit explores the history of art in Zion National
Park, and includes seventy-four paintings and photographs progressing
through time decade by decade. The exhibit will open with two paintings
by Alfred William Lambourne and three reproduced photographs by Charles
Roscoe Savage, the first people known to have sketched and photographed
Zion in an 1870 exploratory party, and will commence through changing
styles and artistic movements to the present day. Artwork by iconic artists
Thomas Moran, Maynard Dixon, Ansel Adams, Frederick Dellenbaugh, and Gunnar
Widforss will join the work of many other artists of national renown and
local impact to form a panoramic history of art in Zion.
The second part of the exhibit features sixty-eight works of contemporary
Zion National Park art. Peter Hassrick, distinguished American art scholar
and Director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art at the Denver
Art Museum, selected the exhibit from a pool of more than 500 entries
from across the country. Winning entries reflect the grandeur and human
experience of Zion National Park and represent a variety of media and
styles, from naturalism to abstraction. This sampling of the best of Zion
National Park art being created today showcases the landscape, flora,
and fauna of the Park, ranging from sweeping panoramas to intimate details.
The exhibit will also feature a contemporary installation of Zion created
by Kathy Clement Cieslewicz, Lindsy Stewart Cieslewicz, and Dan Whalen.
A dance filmed in the park, choreographed to Olivier Messiaen’s
Des Canyons aux Etoiles (From the Canyons to the Stars), and projected
onto a sheet of gypsum, the installation brings together materials, music,
and motion to create a multi-sensual experiential interpretation of the
park.
These three elements together form the most comprehensive exhibit of Zion
National Park art yet assembled. Zion Natural History Association will
publish a catalog of the exhibit, A Century of Sanctuary: The Art of Zion
National Park, which will feature a foreword by Robert Redford and essays
by Peter Hassrick, Lyman Hafen, Roland Lee, Deborah Reeder, and Leslie
Courtright. Each piece of artwork in the exhibit will appear reproduced
in stunning color in the book along with the artists’ biographies.
After the exhibit has ushered in Zion’s centennial year at the St.
George Art Museum, the juried part of the show will travel as the emissary
of the Park’s centennial to other venues around the country through
2009.
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