Brigham Young University is building on the success of its exhibition of Carl Bloch’s religious paintings three years ago to bring more works by Bloch and two other acclaimed religious artists to its Museum of Art on the Provo campus.
The Riverside Churchin New York City is lending paintings by the German artist Heinrich Hoffman to the exhibit, which also includes works by Danish artists Frans Schwartz and Carl Bloch. Several of the paintings come from the FredriksborgCastle in Denmark. Henning Fode, who chairs the museum board at Frederiksborg, says bringing them to Utah was not a simple task.
"These are not paintings just hanging on a wall," Fode tells KUER. "These are integrated paintings made on copper plates integrated into the panels of the King’s Oratory. So it was quite, let’s say, a problem to take them out of the walls and to install photographies instead.”
Though some of the paintings have never left their original locations until now, many will be familiar to Latter-day Saints and others who’ve seen reproductions in church books and other settings.
Tickets for the Sacred Gifts exhibit are free, but visitors need to reserve a time on the museum’s website at sacredgifts.byu.edu.