- City:
- Price, UT
- Site Type:
- Art Works, Murals
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Completed:
- 1940
- Artist:
- Lynn Fausett
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
A portion of Lynn Fausett’s Barrier Canyon mural hangs in the Prehistoric Museum at Utah State University Eastern. It is part of an enormous, 82-foot canvas painting done by Fausett in 1940 under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) Arts Project (WPAAP). The segment of the mural on display in the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum is the smaller of two (12 x 22 ft.) and depicts approximately the left hand one-fourth of the Great Gallery. The larger section of the mural hangs in the Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
The mural depicts ancient native pictographs/petroglyphs that Fausett had observed at the Great Gallery in Canyonlands National Monument (now a National Park), in what is known as the “Barrier Canyon Rock Art” style. The mural was originally painted to be hung at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, then was stored at the Denver Art Museum for many years. In 1964 it was brought out and Fausett made repairs before it was exhibited around the west for several years. It came back to Utah in 1969 and has been on display to the public ever since, in Salt Lake City and Price.
Lynn Fausett was born and raised in Price, Utah, and did several major New Deal mural projects around the state, including in the foyer of the auditorium of the Municipal Building in Price.
Source notes
"Eastern Utah Rockart" handout, Utah State University Eastern Prehistoric Museum, accessed July 28, 2015.
https://usueastern.edu/museum/exhibits/rockart
Brian Maffly, "Barrier Canyon mural: Utah treasure back home." Salt Lake Tribune, December 5, 2011.
Site originally submitted by Brent McKee on July 27, 2015.
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