With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Mahonri Young
Sculpture
1877 – 1957
American sculptor whose monument ‘This is the Place’ which commemorated the centennial of the Mormons’ arrival in Utah, was commissioned by the Church of Latter Day Saints in 1939 and completed in his studio at Weir Farm in Wilton, where he also created a monument to Brigham Young for Utah’s statuary installed in the US Capitol in 1950.
- Biography/Description of Work
A Morman, Mahonri Young began studying art in Salt Lake City and in 1899 went to New York to attend the Art Students League and in 1901 the Academie Julian in Paris. A social realist, he spent much of his life in New York City and was associated with the Ashcan School. Upon his marriage to Dorothy Weir, the couple moved to the Weir Farm where, like Dorothy’s father, J. Alden Weir, they established studios. Young was also associated with the Silvermine Guild of Artists in 1939.
- Sources view
- Uconn database, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahonri_Young, http://www.askart.com/askart/y/mahonri_mackintosh_young/mahonri_mackintosh_young.aspx, http://www.smofa.org/collections/browse.html?x=artist&artist_id=9, https://byustudies.byu.edu/showtitle.aspx?title=7558, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1985/10/mahonri-young-sculptor-of-his-heritage?lang=eng, http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=5524, http://jackfsanders.tripod.com/S-Z.htm
- Associated Resource(s)