The Latter-day Saint Art World
Image: Writ and Vision website: https://www.writandvision.com/
By Richard Bushman
When we stand before a painting in a museum or look at a picture in an art book, we usually pause for a minute or two, wondering about what the painting meant to the artist or what it means to us, and never think of the torturous path that brought it to this place. How did it come about that this particular picture is hanging on the wall or appearing in the book?
The process by which a painting gets to a museum wall or on to the pages of a book is concealed most of the time but not hard to uncover with a little digging. The institutions, pathways, and evaluations that convey the art to its destination constitute what scholars call the “art world." There are many art worlds, but among them is the Latter-day Saint version which organizes a market for LDS art and leads a few fortunate works to museums and history books. An aspiring artist is caught up in this world the moment he or she decides to sell art. Friends and family like the person’s work. Would others be interested? The art world beckons.
The art world may appear as a collection of humdrum organizations to market art—galleries, stores, websites, dealers, museums--not much more exciting than the marketing of school supplies or shoes. But it is of immense importance to artists because it embodies the process that answers a baffling question: Why are some paintings considered more valuable than others? Who’s to say that a canvas smeared with paint by a famed artist is of greater worth than a canvas by an aspiring high school student? To outsiders, evaluation of artistic worth often appears arbitrary, a set of pronouncements with no objective basis. That objection cannot be definitively dismissed, but neither is artistic judgment entirely arbitrary. Art work is subject to continuing evaluations by teachers, gallery owners, curators, collectors, scholars, and by you and me, and only work that passes repeated tests, rises to the top. That process of ongoing evaluation takes place within the passages of the art world.
The Way Up
How does a young LDS artist rise in the art world today? Two paths open at the beginning. One leads primarily to the sale of prints and other reproductions, the other to the sale of original art. The two overlap, and the most eminent painters sell prints, but art sales fall predominantly into one category or the other.
It is relatively easy to start selling prints. Beginning artists can show prints of their work on an instagram account at very little cost. The word “print” has many meanings. A print pulled from a carving on wood or linoleum or etched on metal and published in a limited number is considered an original work of art. At the other end of the spectrum, “print” also refers to reproductions made by a printer which these days anyone with a cell phone camera, a computer and a printer can do. Higher quality prints called giclee (from a French word meaning to spray and referring to the inkjet printer’s nozzles) are higher resolution, longer lasting, and classified as fine art but are still far less expensive than an original. An artist can engage a printer to reproduce good quality giclee prints on various qualities of paper. Nowadays as prices have dropped, some artists can afford a good quality printer of their own. The artist advertises her work, friends pass the word along, a few sales are made, and she is in business. A slightly more expensive website follows, perhaps increasing sales. Search on the internet for the name of anyone who is selling art and likely an Instagram page or website will appear on the screen with images, prices, and instructions for ordering.
To get their work before the art-buying public, beginning artists can display it in the art bazaars that appear off and on over two-week periods throughout the year. The bazaar rents the space, the artists put up their work, and the bazaar owner takes twenty percent on sales. Beehive bazaars advertises “handmade goods by local artists and crafters." The 135 Art Show run by Utah Art Market takes its name from the price range: $100, $300, $500. It advertises itself as “supporting local Utah artists for over 25 years." The bazaars have the advantage of attracting people who are in the market for art and know the general price range. The JKR gallery in Provo titled one of its exhibits “The $1,000 Art Show.”
The next step is display in stores like BYU’s bookstore or Deseret Book which devote large spaces to the display of art. Prior to Christmas and Mother’s Day and during General Conference, Education Week, and Women’s Conference, people flock to the stores’ art displays. To the brick-and-mortar stores, add online stores such as Family Home or Altus Fine Art or LDS Art. Family Home offers prints from eight or ten LDS artists along with fabrics and décor. The art in these outlets is primarily devotional. Altus Fine Art concentrates on inspirational art. The great bulk of the paintings at BYU and Deseret Book depict Christ, with the temples next, and pictures of General Authorities and Joseph Smith lagging behind. The online outlet LDS Art ties into the Church’s “Come Follow Me” program for family scripture study. Judging from the number of places for buying inexpensive LDS spiritual art, the market is thriving. In LDS population centers like Mesa, even Costco will sell inspirational LDS art.
To supply bookstores and retail web sites, wholesale operations like Havenlight or Altus Fine Art carry stocks of prints. They save the retail outlets the trouble of licensing the work and arranging for printing. It is a big step up for an artist to move from a private Instagram account to inclusion in the Havenlight inventory. There the art will be seen by potential buyers and given a chance to catch on in the retail market.
The other path, the one leading toward the sale of original art, begins in the galleries. Utah gallery owners respond to the recommendations of teachers at BYU, the University of Utah, or one of the academies teaching art and often will at least take the work of a beginner on consignment. Sometimes eminent artists will agree to appear in a group show along with their students to give them a start. Gallery owners themselves are always on the lookout for promising talent and will sometimes give an artist they like space on their walls. Although they may sell prints on the side, gallerists main business is selling originals. Young artists who want to sell original paintings for thousands of dollars rather than prints for a hundred must catch the eye of a gallerist. Artists with primary sales of prints may advertise originals on their websites but usually they are small paintings only inches wide and tall so the price can be kept low—under $100.
Value
Success in selling originals depends on establishing worth, the most important product of the art world. Each public showing is evidence that a painting is valued by knowing observers, the major goal of young artists. The price of their art and their standing in the art community depends on acknowledgment. That is why juried shows have the highest prestige. Acceptance into a show implies approval by experts, contributing to a consensus about artistic worth. A work’s value is measured by the price it can command but also by the esteem with which an artist’s work is held. No one person or event measures esteem. It is a cumulative body of opinion jointly held by gallery owners, critics, and collectors based on many judgments passed on the work over a period of years. A sentence from the bio of one of the most distinguished artists to emerge from a Latter-day Saint background, the lithographer Wayne Kimball, epitomizes what artists dream of: “Kimball has had over 40 solo exhibitions at various galleries, museums, and educational institutions. He has also exhibited at over 250 regional, national, and international juried and invitational shows. His work can be found in more than 55 permanent institutional collections.” Every artist keeps track of these measures of eminence as the most critical part of a resume.
It is hard to explain exactly how esteem accumulates, but it is one of the chief outcomes of art world processes. Experts almost instinctively pick up on how values are developing for any given artist and are able to assign a price or decide whether or not to acquire. In the larger art world, curators and dealers scan reports of auction sales and watch what is being acquired or featured in galleries and museums. In the LDS art market, gallery owners make it their business to note what is selling. This mass of data floating about shapes the evaluation of a work’s quality and an artist’s acknowledged strength. In the decorative arts world, this process enables the experts on Antiques Roadshow to assign a price to the most obscure antiquity found in someone’s closet. The LDS art world does not feature art auctions, but exhibits, prizes, and word of mouth about sales serve the same purpose.
Once an artist’s work begins to accumulate esteem, galleries and dealers pay attention. They may include a painting in a show or even sponsor an individual exhibition. Very few artists merit a show of their own. Many have to content themselves with putting their work in a gallery on consignment, hoping it will sell before the gallery owner returns the work. Gallery owners who tap into the amorphous body of opinion about worth advise young artists what to charge.
This part of the cycle is filled with high moments and low. Each acceptance and rejection leaves a mark. It requires courage to keep going. Often only a desperate need to make art sustains the effort. Gradually, the persistent ones begin to feel that they are in the swim. They have become a part of the Latter-day Saint art world. They sell prints on their own sites and through retail outlets like BYU and Deseret Book plus the online dealers. They may offer originals but mainly small paintings to keep the prices low—under $500. Their satisfaction rises as the gallery owner recommends higher asking prices. From $500 for a painting, they can ask $1,500 or $5,000. Havenlight advertises original paintings by Liz Lemon Swindle for as much as $62,500 and many in the $10,000 to $30,000 range. As part of the sale, artists get to know patrons who are curious about the personalities of the people who produce the art. Patrons want to purchase a story as well as a work of art. Personality comes to have value.
Art Institutions
As in the Medieval and Early Modern periods of European history, in Latter-day Saint culture ecclesiastical purchases constitute a market for art and are another measure of esteem. The range of acceptable paintings for foyer art is now limited to reproductions of 22 paintings and only a little new art is accepted for temples, but the Church History Museum purchases for its collection. The Museum sponsors a triennial competition for LDS artists from around the world. Over 800 works were submitted to the competition for the 2022-2023 show, and 148 were selected for display. Young artists have a fair shot at being included in this show, and the most distinguished sometimes submit entries. The highest honor is for the museum to bestow a purchase award, signifying a decision to add the work to the museum’s permanent collect. In addition, each of the five jurors selects two works for a merit award, and five awards are given based on choices by visitors. All these tokens of esteem add to the heft of an artist’s resume.
Beyond the Church, the gallery, and private collectors, artists can aspire to acquisition by a museum. With limited purchase funds at their disposal, curators have to choose carefully what they buy. What to acquire and at what price are complicated decisions. In many museums the curator must raise money from a donor to make the purchase, making it necessary to select a piece that will appeal to the donor. To make the case, the curator has to know how paintings have been selling, and even more the state of critical opinion. Is this work significant, which means does it have a place in the evolving history of art? Was it at one time a good example or of especially high quality. If contemporary, is it at a cutting edge somewhere in the sprawling field of art production? No one knows exactly where trends are heading, but curators and gallery owners are constantly required to make such judgments.
The veteran art critic, Arthur Danto, brought the term “art world” into play in a landmark article in The Journal of Philosophy in 1964. Danto was struggling with the problem posed by Andy Warhol’s famous Brillo box. Why was such a pedestrian object judged to be art? Danto argued it required a “theoretical revision” of what constituted art. “To see something as art requires something the eye cannot decry—an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an art world." Subsequently, another philosopher George Dickie expanded the definition to mean what was described as “the institutional theory of art.” Art was an artifact “which has had conferred upon it the status of candidate for appreciation by some person or persons acting in behalf of a certain social institution (the artworld).”
Dickie’s definition best applies to the term’s meaning for Latter-day Saint art where an array of institutions, the ones described here, has arisen to define art values. The intellectual side of the art world highlighted by Danto is underdeveloped among Latter-day Saints. In New York or in the global art worlds, critics hop on every major show in search of exciting new pieces. The New York Times art critics are constantly on the prowl in the multiplicity of galleries scattered through the city. The Latter-day Saint critical establishment is much less active. In the mid twentieth-century, the trio of scholars Vern G. Swanson, Robert S. Olpin, and William S. Seifrit recognized the quality of work by artists such as John Hafen, James Harwood, and LeConte Stewart (with Clayton Williams displaying the work in his gallery). Their scholarship and critical reviews established value for collectors. More recent art has not been covered as well by newspapers and magazines aimed at Latter-day Saint readers, leaving curators to rely on galleries and their own experiences to bring together new work.
Beyond museum acquisitions lies the judgment of history. What will prove lasting and what will emerge into prominence over time? Joseph Paul Vorst is an example of a Latter-day Saint artist who was virtually unknown in the Latter-day Saint art world during the Great Depression when he was painting Missouri farmers laboring over their crops. Vorst came to light in the last decade through a show at the Church History Museum curated by Glen Nelson and Laura Hurtado that made Vorst part of the Latter-day Saint canon of serious painters. Likely there are others out there awaiting discovery. Through the work of art historians, the ongoing reassessments of the Latter-day Saint Art World stretch into the future.
In this art world, as in all the many other art worlds, art production is spread along a rough hierarchy. At the bottom, there is the uninitiated novice offering to sell prints and at the top the acknowledged master whose work commands high prices ($100,000 for a large painting). The top artists do not lack for commissions and begin to emerge as widely known and recognized public figures. Collectors long to have the work of these eminent artists in their homes.
These top artists do not always abandon simple commercial practices for retailing their art. They produce prints and market their work in online outlets for under $50. Signed prints on quality paper cost more. Brian Kershisnik, J. Kirk Richards, and Caitlin Connolly, leading figures among contemporary LDS artists, have websites offering giclee, relief prints, and woodcuts, cards, books, and artist’s proofs. Though intensely serious about their art, these leaders want to reach a broad public and make their work accessible to ordinary buyers. For high-end prints they can charge as much as $100. Caitlin Connolly offers e” as a “Limited Edition Giclee printed with archival inks on premium Velvet Fine Art paper. Signed, numbered, and titled - your print will be only one of a set of 30 prints. Price: $100.”
Other Worlds
Latter-day Saint artists do not confine themselves to the Latter-day Saint art world. There are many adjacent worlds such as one represented by the Oil Painters of America, dedicated to the preservation of representational art, and the National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society. These organizations are linked to galleries, competitions, and forms of esteem generated within their own spheres. Jeff Hein has won prizes from National Portrait Society’s portrait competition. Casey Childs frequently exhibits in the Portrait Society of America shows. Latter-day Saint artists also merge with Western art markets and win prizes from the societies that serve these markets. In 1978 at age 32, Michael Coleman was given his first retrospective at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. In 1999, he won the Prix de West Award at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, and the exhibitions and prizes continue to mount up. “Get Your Art Noticed Here” was the headline for an upcoming art exhibition sponsored by the National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society, and Latter-day Saint artists, like all artists, respond to the call.
The Latter-day Saint market blends most fully with the Christian art market. A number of non-Latter-day Saints sell Christian art at the BYU bookstore, and to reach a broader market, online Latter-day Saint art outlets emphasize their Christian identity more than their Church connection. One looks a long way on the website of Family Home for the words Latter-day Saint even though all the artists they feature are Church members. The blend with Christian art has been facilitated by trends in the Latter-day Saint art market where depictions of Christ predominate in the bookstores. For devotional purposes, the pictures of Christ by Youngsung Kim, not a Mormon, serve the Latter-day Saint audience as well as J. Kirk Richards. Recently, the most expensive original on the Havenlight page of original art works was Liz Lemon Swindle’s depiction of a scene from “The Chosen,” the popular television series, not created by Latter-day Saints and appealing to an immense Christian audience. Swindle’s work is as likely to be purchased by a Baptist collector as a Latter-day Saint.
This cross-over has always existed. Works by the Seventh-day Adventist Harry Anderson are some of the most popular in the LDS store of images. More works by Anderson appear in the Church-published Gospel Art Book (2009) than by any other artist. Anderson’s friend Tom Lovell, an illustrator for slick magazines and also not a Latter-day Saint, painted the image of Moroni at Joseph Smith’s bedside that Latter-day Saints are most likely to think of when the story is told. Ecumenism comes naturally to art commerce which is neutral about denomination so long as the product satisfies the clientele.
The LDS art world then is best understood as one among a variety of art worlds: Western Art, Figurative Art, Christian Art, Indigenous art, and on and on, all of which have their associations, their galleries, and their contributing artists. Standing above all these is the art that feeds into the global art fairs in Miami and New York, the high-end auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the New York and Los Angeles galleries, the biennial exhibitions in Venice and the Museum of Modern Art, and the great national museums in New York, Los Angeles, and other art centers. A few Latter-day Saints have a toehold in this preeminent art world and more aspire to be included. Mahonri Young was one who received modest recognition at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Museum of Modern Art’s collections includes three by Wayne Kimball.
Eminence at that level is not a requirement for success as a Latter-day Saint artist. The entrepreneurial vigor energizing the Latter-day Saint art world is one measure of a widespread and often deeply felt need for art—both to make it and to enjoy it—and the institutions that recognize and foster LDS artists meet that need. Galleries and websites proliferate because Latter-day Saints want art. They want it for devotional purposes, to mark their religious beliefs on the walls of their houses and convey their commitments to all who enter. Families purchase art not because it has achieved some degree of eminence but because they like it. It reminds them of a temple wedding or their reliance on Christ. More and more art is entering into Latter-day Saint devotional practice. Like the bleeding hearts on the walls of Catholic homes, mezuzahs on Jewish doorways, or domestic altars in Japanese households, devotional images are forming a Latter-day Saint culture of religious art. The LDS art world has arisen to serve those emerging practices and bring some order to valuation and distribution. Both as patrons and as artists, an increasing number of Latter-day Saints are finding a place in an art world.