Barrier Canyon Mural, Natural History Museum of Utah – Salt Lake City UT

The largest portion of Lynn Fausett’s WPA-funded Barrier Canyon mural hangs at the back of the entry hall of the University of Utah Museum of Natural History at the eastern flank of the University of Utah campus (a smaller portion hangs in the Natural History Museum in Price, Utah). The canvas mural measures 12 x 60 feet and 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 fell in the hands of the Utah Museum of Natural History in 1969.  In 2011 the mural was cleaned and stabilized, and then remounted on a steel frame, to be exhibited in the new home of the museum, completed that year. (see Museum flyer, below)

 

Lynn Fausett was born and raised in Price, Utah, and did several major New Deal mural projects around the state and in Nevada, including in the foyer of the auditorium of the Municipal Building in Price.