Dictionary of Utah Fine Artists

The Dictionary of Utah Fine Artists, from Aagard to Zwara with artists in between, is compiled and written by Vern G. Swanson, Donna Poulton, Angela Swanson Jones, and Micah Christensen. It details the styles and experiences of over 4,500 fine artists from the sketches of early exploration artists to Robert Smithson's world-famous Spiral Jetty to the Western images of Minera Teichert. Rich images and color plates bring Utah's masterpieces to life, and black-and-white photographs take the readers on a journey into the artists' interior world. This sweeping work highlights the rural and the cosmopolitan, the traditional and the modern, and the concrete and the transcendent that encompass Utah art.

Dr. Vern Grosvenor Swanson studied at BYU and the University of Utah, and received his doctorate at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. He was the director of the Springville Museum of Art for thirty-two years until his retirement in 2012. His authored publications include J.W. Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism, as well as two major books on Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, six books on Russian and Soviet art, and five books on Utah painting and sculpture. He lives in Springville, UT.

Donna Poulton, a Montana native, lived in Germany for 12 years before returning to the West to earn her doctorate from BYU. She was the curator of Art of Utah and the American West at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts for eight years and now works privately as a fine art consultant. She has written articles for art magazines and authored a book on Reuben Kirkham: Pioneer Artist and coauthored: LeConte Stewart: Masterworks; Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts, and Painters of Grand Tetons National Park. She lives in Salt Lake City, UT.

Angela Swanson Jones is a graduate of BYU and holds an M.A. from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. She is currently writing a biography and catalogue raisonn on the German painter, Heinrich Hofmann (1824-1911). She has published essays and articles with Fine Art Connoisseur and is the coauthor of Desperately Young: Artists who Died in their Twenties. After living in Europe for ten years, Angela currently resides near Dallas, TX.

Dr. Micah Christensen earned his doctorate in the History of Art from University College London, where he traveled extensively to study how artists were trained in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He received his MFA from Sotheby's Institute (London). Micah has lectured at the British Library and the University of Cambridge, and is currently a partner at Anthony's Fine Art & Antiques (Salt Lake City) and a Board Member of the Springville Museum of Art. He regularly lectures, writes, and consults with public institutions and private collectors. He lives near Salt Lake City, Utah.