Decades before the advent of movies and television, LDS artist C.C.A. Christensen toured the West with his moving panorama of murals depicting the life of Joseph Smith and the Mormon pioneer experience. Hundreds learned about the early days of the Church through Brother's Christensen's visual works.
At an exhibit at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, entitled "On the Road with C.C.A. Christensen: The Moving Panorama," the murals will soon teach a new generation about the Church's beginnings and eventual westward migration. The exhibit opens March 6 in the Marian Adelaide Morris Cannon Gallery on the museum's main floor. Admission is free.
During the mid- to late-19th century, the popular form of entertainment for the rising literate middle class was a phenomenon known as the Panorama. Originating in 1787 with Robert Baker's 360-degree painting presented in a rotunda, the panorama evolved into many forms, the most popular in America being the moving panorama. This genre consisted of several canvases stitched together into a scroll and reeled across a stage.
"The panorama provided a combination of art and didactic entertainment for the masses, which organized historic events into series of palatable visual images," said exhibit curator Dawn Pheysey.
C.C.A. Christensen, a Danish immigrant who worked and lived in Utah, was one of several LDS artists to use this popular art form. The artist's first panorama depicted the religious history of the world from Adam to the life of Joseph Smith. Brother Christensen later created the "Mormon Panorama," a work following the history of the early Church from Joseph Smith's first vision to the pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley. Both panoramas will be included in the BYU exhibit.
A re-enactment of the 19th-century performance given by Brother Christensen when he traveled with his panorama to spots in Utah and Idaho will accompany the exhibit. Call 801-422-8287 for more information.
The BYU Museum of Art is located on North Campus Drive on the BYU campus in Provo, Utah. The museum is open Monday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. It is closed Sundays.
