The Artist - Mabel Pearl Frazer
Mabel Pearl Frazer was born in West Jordan, Utah, on August 28, 1887. A very independent personality, Frazer became devoted to art at an early age. Her sister described her this way, "Her religion and her art took precedence over everything else in her life; she couldn't be bothered with anyone or anything else."
Frazer greatly valued her education. She graduated with honors from what was then the Beaver branch of the Brigham Young Academy (later known as the Murdock Academy), and in 1914, Mabel graduated from the University of Utah. She then took a teaching position at Lewis Junior High in Ogden, just long enough to finance her life-long dream of studying art in New York.
In 1920, after a year of study at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design in New York, Frazer joined the University of Utah art staff and remained there until her retirement, 33 years later. During that time, she was instrumental in expanding the art department to include many new disciplines. As she was extremely versatile, her teaching responsibilities included no less than nine different subject areas including art history, textile design, sculpture, ceramics, serigraphy, design, painting, landscape painting, and human anatomy. She handled many managerial duties but was continually passed over for promotion because she was a woman. Three years before her retirement she finally was appointed to associate professor.
When Frazer's estate was appraised in 1981, it included over 386 artworks, most of which were oil paintings. She showed her work in both Utah and New York. One of her works still hangs in the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy.
Mabel Pearl Frazer enjoyed a very long and active artistic career before her death at age 94. She said, "An artist must have something to say. Art is just another language and the would-be painter should at least learn the rudiments of the language-color, composition, drawing, etc."
The Art
MABEL PEARL FRAZER (1887-1982) Fillmore/SLC, Utah
Sunrise, North Rim Grand Canyon
oil on canvas, 33" x 57-3/4" (83.6 x 147.0 cm)
Gift from the Waldis Family (Madeleine, Dick & Nettie), SLC 1981.026
In 1930, the New York Herald Tribune wrote of Mabel Frazer's work, "Miss Frazer's observation and her tendency is to suit her painting to the very mood and texture of the country itself." Few paintings partake of the 'mood and texture of the country' more than Frazer's oil, Sunrise, North Rim Grand Canyon. The vivid color of Frazer's landscape is an example of the influence of Birger Sandzen on Utah art during the late 1920s.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Frazer painted the Grand Canyon, Zion, Kanab, and Cedar Breaks several times, including her Sunset, East Rim. No.s 1 and 2. Typical of her best work are the flowing rhythms, bold color in flat patterns, and her expansive compositions. Frazer was one of the most advanced female painters of her day.
Concepts
Visual Art Core Curriculum - Utah State Office of Education
Under the Standard of Making, this print can help the student:
- differentiate between foreground, middle ground, and background.
- explore the use of mixed media through the creation of an artwork (for example, do an ink or pastel drawing over a watercolor wash, add a watercolor wash over a crayon resist drawing).
- explore a technique with varying media (for example, crosshatch with pastel, colored pencil, and/or fine point marker).
- explore processes involved with various art forms (for example, drawing [a direct process], sculpture, or printmaking [both involve a variety of techniques and processes]).
Under the Standard of Perceiving, this print can help the student:
- show how to use contour lines to indicate the forms and orientation of objects.
- describe all the elements (for example, line, color, shape, space, value, texture, and form) and/or objects they see in an artwork.
Under the Standard of Expressing, this print can help the student:
- show how to use a personal experience as inspiration to create a work of art.
- discover the variety of representation a single theme in art can include (for example, using the theme of nature, the images can include vast, immense vistas or intimate, detailed studies of individual flowers).
Under the Standard of Contextualizing, this print can help the student:
- express thoughts, feelings, and ideas about this image.
- describe what the artist's intentions may have been at the time the painting was made.
- discover how works of art reveal the history, social conditions, and/or value systems of a culture.
- define the art forms of varying cultures (for example, African cultures do not have a strong tradition of oil painting, but they do have many forms of sculpture; Japanese cultures emphasize ceramic art forms and also do not have a strong tradition of oil painting).
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