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Show Fairbanks paintings displayed About 30 paintings by early Utah artist John B. Fairbanks (1855-1940) (f will go on exhibit at the Springville Museum of Art beginning Dec. 5 and will remain until Jan. 3, 1988. Hanging in the second floor Steed Gallery, these pictures are arranged chronologically so that the artist's development and progress can be understood. The works have been lent to the museum by the descendants of the artist. Those families contributing works for the show include Merwin Fairbanks, John B. Fairbanks, Jr., Florence Fairbanks (Mrs. J. Austin Cope) and the Fairbanks Family Collection. j J.B. Fairbanks was the founder of .i the greatest artistic dynasty of Utah artists yet produced. His sons included in-cluded Avard, J. Leo and Delamar, j while his grandchildren Ortho, i Justin, Grant and Jonathan con-i con-i tinue the legacy. John B. was born in payson and I began his career in photography, j He developed a friendship with Springville artist John Hafen. In 1890, Fairbanks was one of the four : artists selected by the LDS Church to go on a mission to Paris to study i art. After training, he came back to Utah and helped with painting murals inside the Salt Lake LDS Temple. In 1893 Fairbanks, along with Hafen, became one of the first professors of art at BYU. Fairbanks became noted as a landscape painter. He also liked to copy "Old Master's" paintings. The Fairbanks family collection contains a work which J.B. copied from a well-known well-known painting by the French artist Corot. During 1916, John B. lived for a time in Zion National Park painting . the granduer of the Utah landscape. From this time onward, this became a dominant theme in his work. He lived to be 85 years of age and painted until the last year of his life. Fairbanks played an important role as one of the founders of the Springville Collection nucleus with his gift of art in 1907. The Fairbanks family has agreed with the Springville Museum of Art to place its family collection on permanent and indefinite loan with the possibility that these works will eventually be given to the Springville Museum. |