Crossing the Divide

Raymond Dabb Yelland (1848-1900), 'View of Monterey Bay,' 1879, oil on canvas, 53 15/16 x 36 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of S.L. Wright, 1973.

American art encompasses many voices. Landscapes range from western desert cliffs to lush eastern meadows. Portraits showcase the range of lives, cultures, and histories that weave across many geographies. Artists through the centuries portrayed a multiplicity of perspectives, and they used everything from oil on canvas to LED screens to share those ideas with the world.

This new exhibition celebrates and reexamines the wondrous breadth and depth of American art in the Museum’s permanent collection. Over the next five years, visitors will find familiar favorites from artists like Maynard Dixon, Minerva Teichert, and Mahonri Young, as well as rarely shown marvels by artists such as Benny Andrews, Valentina Sireech, and Xavier Tizoc Martinez.

We invite all to explore, compare, and question the more-than-100 artworks in this curated collection featuring powerful examples of the diverse beliefs, struggles, and expressions that have come to define the past and present.