By Thomas Grover
SALT LAKE CITY – The Conference Center is not an official art gallery, even though it contains art that rivals pieces in local galleries.
“It is a place to be used in honor to the Almighty and for the accomplishment of his eternal purposes,” President Gordon B. Hinckley said before dedicating the building in October 2000, which serves as a gathering place during general conference for more than 21,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Yet some of the best LDS artwork and sculpture representing numerous religious and historical themes is displayed on the building”s three floors in an effort to enhance the spiritual atmosphere for visitors of all religious affiliations.
“We wanted work that was generally religious,” said Robert O. Davis, senior curator at the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City. “We try to seek out art that is affirmative in content and deals with values and would communicate to people of various religious persuasions.”
Hinckley said the church expected other groups would request to use the building.
“We will make it available under regulations that will ensure that its use will be in harmony with the purposes for which it will be dedicated,” he said. “We will dedicate it as a house in which artistic performances of a dignified nature will be presented.”
The depth and meaning expressed in the art shows its high quality, Davis said.
“We want this to be museum-class art,” he said. “[The] artists are masters in their field.”
Sculptors Avard Fairbanks, Mahonri Young and Dennis Smith, and painters Walter Rane, Linda Curley, John Scott, LeConte Stewart, Harry Anderson and Minerva Teichert all have works in the Conference Center.
The Conference Center has approximately 125 pieces of art on display. Most of the work came from the church collection, with between 30 and 35 pieces commissioned specifically for the Conference Center.
Davis and his team maintain the collection and rotate the pieces periodically. Members of the church account for almost all of the work in the building, Davis said. Two non-members painted three of the more famous paintings in the collection: “Christ Ordaining the Apostles” and “The Ascension of Jesus” by Anderson, and “Jesus Teaching in the Western Hemisphere” by Scott.
One prominent display is the Book of Mormon series by Arnold Friberg. In the early 1950s, Primary President Adele Cannon Howells commissioned and paid Friberg to paint twelve pictures depicting different events from the Book of Mormon. The originals are displayed in a room on the second floor of the Conference Center.
“Joseph Interprets the Dream of Pharaoh”s Butler” is one of the oldest pieces in the collection, painted in 1804 in the French neoclassical style. Davis said he is not sure who painted the picture. A Jacques Louis David expert looked at the painting and said David might have painted it; others speculate Fran?ois G?rard, a student of David”s, painted the piece. Davis said he plans to have the painting examined by more experts.
Davis does know, however, how the church acquired the painting. It originally belonged to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain and brother of Napoleon. Exiled to America in 1815, Bonaparte brought the painting with him as part of his vast art collection. When he returned to Europe, part of the collection was auctioned away.
Sam Brannan, a one-time church member and California”s first millionaire, eventually acquired the piece. The painting changed hands a couple of times before Hyrum Clawson, a Salt Lake developer, acquired the painting. In 1893, Clawson gave the painting to the church for use in the temple, where it hung until 1980. The painting was recently refurbished.
More than 500 tour guides accommodate the 3000 to 4000 visitors that come to the building during the summer months. Visitors can tour the building only with a guide.
