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Artwork of the Week

Artwork of the Week: January 2018 (Week 4)

Maynard Dixon, “Remembrance of the Tusayan, No. 2

Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), Remembrance of Tusayan, No. 2, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 1998.

This week we celebrate the birthday of Maynard Dixon on January 24th, 1875. The BYU Museum of Art is honored to own a large collection of Dixon’s work. In Remembrance of Tusayan, No. 2, Dixon depicts the ancient Tusayan province in northeastern Arizona, inhabited by the Hopi. Dixon’s angled and flattened mesas and simplified clouds come close to modern abstraction. Dixon described this vista as “a vast and lonely land, saturated with inexhaustible sunlight and astounding color, visible with unbelievable distinctness and overspread with intense and infinite blue.” A scene with such bright, warm sunshine feels welcome in these winter months.