Tom Alder, a Salt Lake City native, left a 30-year mortgage banking career in 2009 to open Alderwood Fine Art, specializing in early Utah art. He held an MA in Art History, taught at the University of Utah, and served on various boards in the cultural community. He died in 2018.
Many consider James Tayor Harwood [1860-1940] to be the father of Utah art, so no mere column could hope to describe his life and contributions to our cultural history. It would be like sitting at the keyboard and writing a 1,500 word essay about George Washington. My first […]
Few sculptors have left their mark on the visual landscape of Utah to the same degree as Angelo Caravaglia, a longtime University of Utah professor who passed away early last month. Thousands of us pass by his work everyday; if shown an image of one, many Utahns would immediately […]
In Olpin/Seifrit/Swanson’s Utah Art, nestled between LeConte Stewart’s 1937 masterpiece, “Private Car,” and Lee Greene Richards’ well-known, “Dreaming of Zion,” is a painting entitled “Utah Hills, East of Springville.” This gem of a landscape was created by one of Utah’s most revered landscape and portrait artists, Gordon Nicholson Cope […]
“One evening he told us of a friend who came to him for advice. ‘Brother Lambourne, my son wants to be an artist.’ A pause, then a reply. ‘Oh my God; have you tried to dissuade him?’—’Yes, but he won’t listen.’ Another pause. ‘Then, my friend, take him […]
A good friend and I ventured into the exciting world of Coyote Gulch, one of the most beautiful and enchanting backcountry trails in the entire west. This was my sixth trip, but accompanying a good friend is like hiking a trail again for the first time. Some two […]
One of the most remarkable monographs to have been written in recent years is Marian Wardle’sMinerva Teichert: Pageants in Paint. That Wardle is the granddaughter of the venerable western and Mormon muralist is inconspicuous, and with exacting detail, Wardle has created the most important work to date about […]
One of the factors that first attracted me to the history of Utah artists and art was the Paris art mission of 1890 to 1892. In one of my early Bob Olpin classes at the U, I selected the intriguing, unique mission as the theme for some research. […]
Any description of George Martin Ottinger’s (1833-1917) life reads much like a “lost and found” listing in the newspaper: “Lost: Dog with scar on head; no teeth; has broken tail; missing front leg; answers to the name ‘Lucky.’” Ottinger was born in Pennsylvania to a family who, when […]
Every Saturday morning, I take a walk from the east Avenues of Salt Lake to the Farmers’ Market at Pioneer Park. I have learned that everything is relative because whenever I mention this weekly walk to anyone, they are astonished. (The distance is only three miles; if I […]
Among the blue hairs and Buicks, I completed my annual Memorial Day flower ritual at the Salt Lake City Cemetery this past weekend. While wandering about looking for water, my attention shifted to family names on many of the head stones: Cannon, Young, Smith, Kimball, and Moyle (sorry—had […]
The question is not who, but what was Templeton. There was no such person carrying that name; rather, the “Templeton Building” was the name given the venerable downtown Salt Lake building, because of its proximity to the LDS Salt Lake Temple. Completed in 1890, the Templeton was originally a hotel by […]
For many of us baby boomers who witnessed the emerging days of local TV kiddie shows, we were family because we all shared the same uncle. Roscoe Grover, the portly, kind and multi-talented gent known to us as “Uncle Roscoe,” was asked by KSL TV in 1950 to […]
For a couple of years in the ’70s, I was known only as “Elder Alder.” I didn’t much like it, and, apparently, most of the residents of Montreal and Toronto didn’t either. But I can’t imagine being called “Mahonri.” Rather than having to spell that name for everyone, […]
Last month, I introduced you to A.B. Wright, the first of many “Block” artists, that is, a number of early Utah artists who gravitated to each other in the areas of the Avenues of Salt Lake, as well as locales close to the University of Utah. I have […]
Why this insatiable interest in the work and lives of early Utah artists? Perhaps because my office is now located on the 10th floor of the Zions Bank Tower I am receiving some sort of vibe from its predecessor, the Templeton Building, home to the studios of dozens […]
