Teens/adults - Lesson 4: Works you should know

Is there a canon?

Every culture has a group of art works and artifacts that it holds in high regard. These might be works in an esteemed public collection or published in a noted volume. Whether formalized as a published listing or merely casually acknowledged, Art History has been particularly congenial to the notion of a canon, although it is also vexed by the issue of who gets to decide what’s included. Art History in our age is being reevaluated as we speak. A canon is prone to bias, and every once in a while, a good airing out refreshes everything. A consequence of new voices and new discoveries is the reordering and retelling of a fuller history.

For Art at Home, which uses the art works and objects by and about Latter-day Saints as principal examples, we approached museum directors, arts professionals, scholars, gallerists, and artists who are LDS with this question: What are 10 works to emerge from our culture that you think people should know? Not masterpieces, not “the canon,” just works we should we know.

The following are their curated lists. Look up the works, visit those that you can, then study them and ask yourself this question: Why do these experts value these works? What is the story of these works?

Curated lists of works “you should know”

Click on the names of the experts below to access their lists.

• Cris Baird, art collector

• Heather Belnap, Professor of Art History, Brigham Young University

• Caitlin Connolly, artist

• Rose Datoc Dall, artist

• Peter Everett, artist, Professor of Art, Brigham Young University

• Laura Allred Hurtado, Executive Director, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art

• Garrick Infanger, The Krakens, digital gallery of Mormon artist profiles and interviews

• Ann Lambson, Interpretation Specialist - Architecture and Design at the Denver Art Museum

• Jeff Lambson, Director and Curator, Emmanuel Art Gallery at the University of Colorado Denver

• Mark Magleby, Museum Director, Brigham Young University Museum of Art

• Valerie Atkisson de Moura, artist

• Glen Nelson, Co-executive Director, Center for Latter-day Saint Arts

• Margaret Olsen Hemming, Editor-in-chief, Exponent II

• Annie Poon, artist

• Walter Rane, artist

• J. Kirk Richards, artist

• Al Rounds, artist

• Ashlee Whitaker, Curator of Religious Art, Brigham Young University Museum of Art

• Brent Wilson, artist, retired professor and head of Art Education at the School of Visual Arts at The Pennsylvania State University

• Rita R. Wright, director, Springville Museum of Art