Description
The first expert critical treatment of Mormon visual art, featuring over 200 high-quality color illustrations Nearly every major religion has a significant artistic tradition, and religion's relationship with art--sometimes inspirational, sometimes antagonistic, often complex--has generated a substantial body of writing stretching back centuries. In its nearly two centuries of existence, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has produced, inspired, and provoked a wide range of artistic responses. Yet that artistic output has not generated a commensurate amount of critical examination. Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader seeks to fill a substantial gap by providing a comprehensive examination of the visual art of the Latter-day Saints from the nineteenth century to the present. It defines Mormon art broadly as art by, for, or about Mormons, including work by artists who share a Latter-day Saint identity and by those with no personal attachment who have responded artistically to Mormonism. The volume includes twenty-two essays by scholars from various disciplines, perspectives, and backgrounds who offer rigorous research and analysis of Latter-day Saint artistic production and culture alongside elegant reproductions of more than 200 works of Mormon art, including panorama paintings, quilts, architecture, sculpture, and cartoons, to film, gallery installations, indigenous works and more. Mormon Art: A Critical Guide explores Mormon visual art in unprecedented breadth and depth.
Table of Contents
Foreword, Richard Bushman and Glen Nelson Introduction, Amanda K. Beardsley and Mason Kamana Allred 1. A Theology of Mormon Art, Terryl Givens 2. Temple Art Renewal, 2000-2022, Colleen McDannell 3. Moving Pictures: Subjectivity and Mormon Identity in Documentary Film, Randy Astle 4. Establishing Zion: Identity and Communitas in Early Latter-day Saint Art, Ashlee Whitaker 5. The Public Image: How the World Learned to See Mormonism, from Cartoons to World's Fair, Nathan Rees 6. Creating Something Extraordinary: Nineteenth Century Latter-day Saint Women and Their Folk Art, Jennifer Reeder 7. Globetrotting Mormon Women Artists and the Art of Travel, 1900-1950, Heather Belnap 8. Aspirations of Grandeur and Tempering Restraints in Mormon Temple Design, Josh Probert 9. Success in Circuit: Brigham Young's Big Ten, Mary Campbell 10. Mormon Art and Architecture in Mexico: Between Mexico and the United States, Rebecca Janzen 11. Defining the Mormon Landscape: Photography and the Representation and Evolution of a Distinctive American Space, James Swenson 12. The Paris Art Mission, Linda Jones Gibbs 13. LDS Artists and the Art Students League of New York, Glen Nelson 14. George Dibble and Modernism in Utah, Glen Nelson 15. 'Draw All Men Unto Him': The Mormon Art and Belief Movement, Menachem Wecker 16. Race and Latter-day Saint Art, Paul Reeve17. Native Americans, Mormonism, and Art, Carlyle Constantino 18. The Piety of Perspective: Bodies, Media, and Cinematic Experience in Latter-day Saint film, 1970-2020, Mason Kamana Allred 19. Latter-day Saint Feminism and Art, Amanda K. Beardsley 20. “Who Did I Leave Out and Should Have Included?”: The History and Influence of the International Art Competitions at the Church History Museum, Laura Poulsen Howe 21. Being Relevant: On the BYU Department of Art in the Twenty-first Century, Analisa Coats Sato 22. Toward a Latter-day Saint Contemporary Art, Chase Westfall Afterword, Laura Allred Hurtado Index
