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Artwork of the Week

Artwork of the Week: September 27, 2020

Florence Ware, Young Woman with Fruit

Florence Ware (1891-1972),Young Woman with Fruit, c.1930, oil on canvas, 23 13/16 x 30 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of Edward Girard and Ruth Hale, 2008.

A Utah native, Florence Ware exhibited artistic talent from an early age. Born into a prestigious family in Salt Lake City, she was privately tutored in music, ballet, and the arts. After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago, she worked professionally as a painter, illustrator, costume designer, muralist, and interior designer for many years. Ware was fascinated by color and light, and loved creating scenes of humans in nature. This love is brilliantly shown in this painting, as the woman’s vibrant colors leap from the canvas and the textured brushwork infuses the work with life. Ware painted for the Works Progress Administration creating murals during the Great Depression. One of her murals can be seen at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus. After a 19-month tour of Europe and the Near East, she returned to Utah where she became the first President of the Association of Utah Artists in 1940. She taught at the University of Utah for 25 years.