The Artist - Elzy J. ("Bill") Bird
E.J. Bird was born to Joseph Montgomery and Fanny Beutler Bird on 3 April 1911 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Interested in art at an early age, Bird studied with artists Bessie Alice Bancroft, Cornelius Salisbury, James Taylor Harwood, and Jack S. Sears. Bird's career portfolio includes works in oil, watercolor, etching, pastel, charcoal, pen and ink, and colored pencil. As Director of the Utah Federal Art Project (1937-1942), E.J. Bird played an integral role in the establishment of the Utah State Art Center in Salt Lake City and the branch centers in Provo, Helper, and Price.
He was also a member of the Board of Director's of the Utah State Institute of Fine Arts during the 1930s. Bird remained the Director of the Utah Art Project until December 1942, when he was drafted into service with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His battalion was involved in the invasion of Okinawa in 1945. After his military service ended, Bird returned to Salt Lake City where he worked for various architectural firms for the next thirty-one years. He maintained his association with the art community as a member of the Board of Directors of the Art Barn during the 1950s.
Since his retirement, Bird has authored and illustrated a number of children's books including Ten Tall Tales (1984), Chuck Wagon Stew (1988), The Blizzard of 1896 (1990), How Do Bears Sleep? (1990), and The Rainmakers (1993).
Over the years, E.J. Bird has held one-man exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum, the University of Utah, and the Intermountain Art Company. His works have been represented in exhibition at the New York World's Fair in 1939, "Artists West of the Mississippi" in Colorado Springs, and in most Utah art shows prior to World War II. Examples of Bird's works can be found in a number of collections including the Utah State Institute of Fine Arts, Utah State Fair, The Springville Museum of Art, and in many Utah schools, public buildings, and private collections. His contributions to Utah art, both as an artist and as Director of the Utah Federal Art Project, have significantly influenced the cultural and artistic development of the state.
The Art
ELZY J. ("BILL") BIRD (1911-2001) Salt Lake City, UT
Horse Traders 1938
oil on masonite, 32" x 40" (81.5 x 101.5 cm)
Courtesy of Stewart L. & Julie Grow, Peoa, Utah
Bird's genre pece entitled Horse Traders (1938) acknowledged the dominant themes of American Scene painting. This piece was first exhibited at the University of Utah Annual Art Exhibit in November 1938. It was then selected for display at the Fourth Annual Show of the National Exhibition of American Art at Rockefeller Center in New York City in 1939.
Painted in an American Regionalist style, Horse Traders depicts a group of men and one young boy admiring the finer points of a gray horse. Other horses are gathered nearby for the purposes of trade. Bird's artistic style experienced a dramatic change between 1937 and 1938 after his involvement with the WPA. As a fine example of Depression art, this painting no longer shows Harwood's influence.
Horse Traders was one of several works of art from the Depression era to be featured in an exhibition at F. Weixler Company in Salt Lake City in 1988. The artists featured in this exhibition were praised in the Deseret News by visual arts writer Richard P. Christensen for their ability to "see a glimmer of light--that 'cloud with a silver lining'" despite years of despondency and despair that marked the Depression era. These artists "continued to dip into brightly colored palettes and fill their canvases with warmth and light."
Concepts
Visual Art Core Curriculum - Utah State Office of Education
Under the Standards of Media, Structures and Functions, and Subjects, Symbols, and Ideas, this print can help the student:
- Explore a variety of painting media, techniques, and processes. Create a painting. Use compositional guidelines in an artwork.
- Demonstrate the depiction of space. Identify the function of art to document an event or person.
- Create an image displaying regional culture.
Under the Standard of Context, this print can help the student:
- Identify works of the Regionalism style, particularly artist Benton.
- Investigate personal history in culture and in the individual student's life.
Under the Standard of Evaluation and Criticism, this print can help the student:
- Examine the hedonist aesthetic stance in art creation.
- Judge an artwork according to personal preference.
Under the Standard of Connections, this print can help the student:
- Compare and contrast the use of space in dance and visual art.
- Make connections between the characteristics of visual arts within a particular historical period or style with ideas, issues, or themes in history.
Under the Standard of Portfolios and Exhibitions, this print can help the student:
- Curate an exhibition according to regional culture.
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