'Hard Times': Art reflects truth of life's trials

Hard times evoke strong emotions. It's true of life and it's true of art.

As America suffers through the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression, artists across the nation "will re-engage in a dialogue about life and living," says Vern Swanson, director of the Springville Museum of Art.

That message is evident in an exhibition at the museum that opened Friday and will run through April 25, titled "Hard Times: An Artist's View."

The show features 33 works by 16 contemporary artists from Utah and other parts of the country. Artists include Jeffrey Hein, Justin Taylor, Trevor Southey, David Jon Kassan, Garin Baker, Mary Beth McKenzie, Gary Ernest Smith, Steven Assael, David Linn, Sean Diediker, Harvey Dinnerstein, Burton Silverman, Mario Andres Robinson, Max Ginsburg, Denis Peterson and Warren Chang.

Many are among the leading realist painters in the country today, says Traci Fieldsted, curator of the show.

"Not since the artists of the Great Depression — artists such as Grant Wood, Maynard Dixon, Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry — has there been such a group painting in realism," she says. "These are among the top realists in the country, and it's so amazing to have them here together."

Many of the artists have not been shown in Utah previously, she says. "And they may not be shown together again. Dinnerstein, Silverman and Ginsburg, who all work on the East Coast, are all in their 80s; you don't know how long they will keep working."

They are all powerful artists, she says, "who have a drive and connection to do what they do. They are not afraid to take risks. Some of them studied with those great artists of the Depression. Many of them have blown away commercial success to paint subjects not based on popularity or ability to sell, but instead make statements."

It is clearly art for the times, Swanson says. "In times of plenty, modernist and post-modernist art prospers, but in hard times and great causes, social realistic narrative art thrives. When artists have something to say outside themselves, social-realism and naturalism is the best vehicle of expression."

This is not sofa art, not what you would probably want to hang in your living room, Fieldsted says. "But it has a look and feel of power. It's bigger than decoration."

One interesting thing she has noticed in putting the exhibition together is that there seems to be some difference in approach between East Coast artists and Utah artists working in the same genre.