Kimball Art Center
Fall A.R.T.S. 2013
Academic Resources for Teachers & Students
Painters of the Wasatch Mountains
Exhibit Overview
A distinct painting development with regard to the American West's Wasatch
Range emerged in the nineteenth century and persists even today. These
"painters of the Wasatch" have set many precedents through their artistic
interpretations of this mountain subject matter. The retrospective exhibit, drawn
from the 2005 collector's book "Painters of the Wasatch Mountains" and
produced in a collaboration with the Utah Museum of Art and History, is a survey
of the gamut of painters who formed and have carried forward an expression of
nature's mighty gift to both visitors and residents of Utah.
As natural successor to the Hudson River School in the East, the "Wasatch
School" persists because of the values we associate with that first of America's
art movements- a dedication to place, a careful study, and interpretation of the
environment in a spiritual and cultural context. The Painters of the Wasatch are
not defined by a particular style or medium but by a physical presence that has
unlimited appeal and inspiration.
Many paintings on loan from museums, artists and private collectors will be on
display from the earliest examples of painting in the nineteenth century, to works
by Utah's contemporary artists.
A.R.T.S. School Tour & Project
Each A.R.T.S School Tour for the Painters of the Wasatch Mountains exhibit will
include a 45 minute guided tour as well as a 45 minute art project. The art
project, will allow students to create small Park City Wasatch Mountain
landscape painting after drawing them on canvas paper. Students will use either
acrylic or watercolor paints.
Costs of A.R.T.S. – FREE thanks to our generous sponsors and supporters!
The Kimball Art Center is able to provide the free of charge, A.R.T.S. School
Tour Program for the Painters of the Wasatch exhibition to public, private,
charter, home schools plus youth organizations thanks to underwriting by the
George S. & Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, The Thomas H. and Carolyn Fey
Family Foundation, KSL 5 TV, Summit County RAP Tax, Utah Division of Arts &
Museums, Zions Bank, The Burton Foundation and Rocky Mountain Power. The
A.R.T.S. Program includes free gallery school tours or in-classroom lectures with
cross curriculum lesson plans and a hands-on exhibit driven art projects to
further students understanding of the Main Gallery exhibition.
Technology for the classroom
The following websites include cross curriculum lesson plans, education
information and fun, interactive games. By using these websites and creating
pre and post visit activities in your classroom, children will be more involved and
retain more knowledge about these subjects. Please visit these following
website links.
1.Learn about artist Maynard Dixon.
http://www.maynarddixonpaintings.com/
2. Learn about artist Susan Swartz and see her art work.
http://play.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx
3. Information about Utah’s Mountains
http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/the_land/physicalgeographyofutah.html
4. Learn about fun Utah facts!
http://www.ducksters.com/geography/state.php?State=Utah
5. Take the Utah State Map Quiz and color it in!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/statesbw/utah.shtml
6. Learn about Utah State History, see old writings and contracts, and learn
about various tribes and people who settled the lands and lived here before you
and made Utah what it is today.
http://www.ilovehistory.utah.gov/index.html
7. Mountain Ranges in Utah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_ranges_of_Utah
Background Information
Painters of the Wasatch Mountains
During the 19th century, a painting movement established itself in the western
region of the United States. The Painters of the Wasatch, are a distinct group of
artists who create a sequence of work based on the regional context of the
Wasatch Mountains. This group formed in the same century in which both the
Rocky Mountain School and the infamous Hudson River School in New York
established themselves, focusing on the subject of regional, mountainous
landscape.
The Wasatch Range divides Utah into roughly two equal parts. The range
attracts a large number of storms, capturing more rain and snow than anywhere
else in the state. As a result, 80 percent of Utah’s population resides on the
western side of the Wasatch Mountains, also known as the Wasatch Front.
Considered a part of the Rocky Mountains, the Wasatch Range provides the
Painters of the Wasatch with a different geological landscape that lacks the long
foothills typical of the Rockies. When Mormon settlers came through the canyons
of the Wasatch Front, the area became an iconic aspect of Utah’s landscape,
and came to be known as the Kingdom of Deseret.
Much like the scenic inspiration at the start of the Hudson River School, the
landscape of the Wasatch Range became an important setting of study and
careful scrutiny by local and newly established immigrant artists. The Painters of
the Wasatch refrain from creating a stylistically similar expression of the region in
the way the Rocky Mountain School did. These artists are not defined by a
particular style or medium, but by a physical presence that has unlimited appeal
and inspiration. The Painters of the Wasatch continue to flourish and provide
artists with the values that are associated with the influence of America’s first
landscapes in art.
This retrospective exhibit, presented by the Kimball Art Center in association with
the Museum of Utah Art and History, is based on the collectors’ book Painters of
the Wasatch Mountains. Most of the pieces in the show appear in the book, and
are on loan from both museums and private collections, as well as from one
notable contemporary artist. A wide variety of styles, depicting the same subject
matter over more than a century, show how the Painters of the Wasatch have
both evolved yet stayed true to their inspiration in the local landscape.
Many thanks for the invaluable help of Richard Horne, Kandace Steadman, Ann
Orton and James Wooley in assisting to bring the exhibit together, as well as to
The Utah Division of Arts and Museums Fine Arts Collection, The Springville
Museum of Art, Ray Quinney and Nebeker P.C., Jonathan A. Dibble, Phoebe
Hailey, Diane and Sam Stewart, and Susan Swartz for the
loan of their art.
Keywords, People, Places, & Vocabulary for Visitors to know:
Wasatch Mountains
Mountain Range
Rocky Mountains
Utah
Deseret
Lesson Plan
Second Grade
Core Curriculum Ties:
Standard 3
(Geography): Students will use geographic tools and skills to locate and describe
places on earth.
b. Describe how geographic aspects of the area affect a community and
influence culture (e.g., river, mountain, and desert).
c. Describe ways in which people have modified the physical environment in a
community (e.g., building roads, clearing land for homes, and mining).
Standard 1
Students will develop a sense of self.
Objective 3
Develop and use skills to communicate ideas, information, and feelings.
a. Express personal experiences and imagination through dance, storytelling,
music, and visual art.
b. Create, with improving accuracy, works of art depicting depth (e.g., close
objects large, distant objects small) using secondary and tertiary colors.
Materials
 Images of Painters of the Wasatch Mountains Exhibition Images included
in the ARTS website.
 Pencils
 Paper for students to draw a landscape.
 Crayons, markers or other coloring media.
 Map of the state of Utah, Western United States or North America. –
Population density if you can find one.
 Lined paper to write on and either a pen or pencil.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
 Students will be able to understand how geographic aspects affect a
community and influence culture in their area and in other areas around
the United States.
 Students will describe ways and reasons people have modified physical
environment..
 Students will create art showing geographic influences of a community.
Instructional Procedures:
1.Teachers show students pictures of Painters of the Wasatch Mountains work
and explain to students these images are all by different artists. Ask the students
to identify what is the same in all of them (answer: there are mountains, and
these mountains are the Wasatch Mountains of the State of Utah! Utah was the
45th state and is in the country United States of America.
2. Explain to students that different artists created these paintings over more than
100 years. These artist were interested in painting the Wasatch Mountains
because of their beauty, place and difference from the rest of the Rocky
Mountain Range. Overtime, the landscape has changed due to mining, roads
and industry. There are places that still look like these landscapes, however
many places are now developed into bigger, growing cities. People live near
these areas because of the close proximity to work, water, and natural resources.
Showstudents images and say while this body of water or mountain might still be
here today, the landscape has changed because of erosion, and community.
Explain weather changes and human changes to landscape.
3. Using the images point out other physical features such as hills, lakes, rivers,
homes and roads. Ask students what might affect this hill, lake, home or road,
why would humanity take this away or change it. Discuss influences of culture
such as ease of travel, mining, sports & recreation (in Northern Utah, snow is a
big factor – greatest snow on earth slogan), industry (Utah is the Industry state,
bee is symbol of industry because bees are hard workers).
4. Ask students to imagine that they were coming to Utah for the first time in the
early 1900s. How would they get there? What do you think they would see?
Have students write a small paper or a few paragraphs as if they were making a
journal entry. Ask them to act like they were traveling to Utah for work. What
would they be traveling her to work on? Include descriptive words to describe the
landscape they might see. How would they get from the East coast to the West
coast? How might these travels or work be influencing the land they are traveling
across?
5. After writings are completed, and edited, have students draw or paint and
image to go along with their writing. Pin up drawings and journal entries next to
each other and display or have students present to class.
Assessment
 Students understand how geographic aspects affect a community and
influence culture in their area and in other areas around the United States.
 Students describe ways and reasons people have modified physical
environment..
 Students create art showing geographic influences of a community.