{"id":49200,"date":"2020-01-30T10:15:53","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T16:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=49200"},"modified":"2020-02-13T09:56:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T15:56:19","slug":"continued-under-her-good-efforts-utah-women-artists-societies-and-social-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/continued-under-her-good-efforts-utah-women-artists-societies-and-social-clubs\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cContinued Under Her Good Efforts\u201d: Utah Women Artists, Societies, and Social Clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cScarce indeed is the smart woman who does not have affiliation with her favorite organization,\u201d Salt Lake Tribune <\/em>journalist Grace Gether wrote in 1937, reporting on the importance of clubs to the greater Salt Lake City community. Artists were no different, there was \u201cscarce indeed\u201d a Utah woman artist who was not affiliated with a broader organization. Significantly, it was often through these institutions that these women obtained power in their community and furthered their careers.<\/h4>\n

Club activity was common for women across the United States and served several purposes. Historian Anne Ruggles Gere has shown that roughly two million women belonged to clubs at the turn of the 20th<\/sup> century.[1]<\/a> If you weren\u2019t a member, your mom, sister, or best friend definitely was. Women in Utah were no exception. Suzanne Stauffer has argued that women\u2019s clubs in Utah c. 1890-1920 were a way for Mormon and non-Mormon women to come together in the \u201cconstruction of a shared secular society.\u201d[2]<\/a> During this time, the church\u2019s female organization, the Relief Society, became much more insular and church-focused than it was before. \u201cMormon women looked to secular clubs in order to participate in civic, social, and cultural activities with other women and to create a public secular life for themselves distinct from their private religious life,\u201d she writes. Furthermore, participating in these clubs allowed women to expand their world into the public sphere through \u201csocially acceptable public activities.\u201d Their residency in the West was also significant. Clubs were a way for white, middle-class women to create and advance \u201ceastern American society and culture in the West.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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Myra L. Sawyer, “Portrait of the Artist or Her Sister Augusta,” ca. 1911, estimated, watercolor. From the Permanent Collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, purchased with funds from Friends of the Art Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

The Ladies Literary Club, founded in 1877 was an especially important institution for women in Salt Lake City, a place where women created these public secular lives. The club had several different associated educational chapters, including one exclusively focused on the visual arts. The women in this group met together and studied the masters of art history, including Renaissance painters and medieval architects. Its members made it their practice to support each other\u2019s endeavors and to be agents of their own education. They also gave its members the opportunity to share their work and expertise with a broader public. They saw the value in these women\u2019s knowledge and experience and allowed them to be public experts. These women could form their public reputations and personas through club activity.<\/h4>\n

Myra Sawyer (1863-1956), a successful Utah artist who studied in Paris at the turn of the century, was one such member. In March 1908, returning from a stint in Paris, she gave a special address to its members. The newspaper reported that it was one of the \u201cmost thoroughly delightful afternoons of the year.\u201d Sawyer regaled the audience with tales of \u201cthe struggles in the realm of art, of the little attic rooms where true art reigns, and of the wonders and ingenuity of the art students whose incomes are limited, but whose ambitions are not.\u201d[3]<\/a> Through her club activity, she was able to represent herself publicly as a professional, serious artist.<\/h4>\n
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Myra L. Sawyer, “Portrait of a Man,” ca.1900, oil on canvas. Springville Museum of Art<\/p><\/div>\n

In a miniature portrait, painted circa 1911, Sawyer furthers this self-representation in her art. The painting is either a self-portrait or a painting of Sawyer\u2019s sister. In either case, it showcases Sawyer\u2019s values as a woman in early-twentieth-century Salt Lake City society. The pose, clothing, and painting style recall ancient Roman portraiture, demonstrating Sawyer\u2019s knowledge of this Classical art form. By depicting herself (or her sister) as a Classical woman, she connects the portrait to what in her time was considered the peak of civilized society, education, and art. Notably, Sawyer\u2019s portraits of male subjects are much less formal and depict the men in contemporary clothing and casual poses. Sawyer\u2019s decision to paint herself or her sister as a Classical woman was deliberate \u2014 a portrayal of a smart, educated, sophisticated woman. Her tactic here mimics the way social clubs and societies advocated for the women among their members (though it should be noted that the opportunities afforded by these clubs and other organizations were not equally enjoyed: the rural, poor, and women of color were not able to access the same power, advocacy, and success as their wealthy, white, urban counterparts). They fashioned themselves at the peak of their local social circles and emphasized their own education and sophistication.<\/h4>\n

Organizations that were specifically dedicated to the visual arts were also an integral part of the Utah art scene in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and helped professionalize the arts in the state. Unfortunately, one of the first such organizations, the Society of Utah Artists (SUA), excluded women from formally joining. Formed in 1893 by some of the giants of Utah art history, the SUA\u2019s charter and bylaws restricted membership to males. It is important that women were left out of this society because as you read the ledger of its members, these are the most recognizable Utah artists: John Hafen, J.T. Harwood, and Mahonri Young, among others (Fig. 3). The men in this society set the tone, standards, and expectations for Utah art and are the ones most remembered in its history. Because women were not allowed the benefits of joining this elite group, they were left out from the networking, skill-sharing, and advocacy that helped propel some of these men to national and international careers.<\/h4>\n