Lynn Fausett
(Price, Utah, 1894 - 1977, Salt Lake City, Utah)
Lynn Fausett was born February 27, 1894, in Price, Utah -- just 15 years after the first pioneers settled there. He was the oldest of eight children and encouraged his younger brother, Dean, also to become an artist.
Lynn studied art at Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and the Art Students League of New York, while living on very modest means. He later served as President of the Art Students League for 14 years. He was honored for stabilizing the league, which was reeling from the clashes of artistic rivalries on the staff and in the membership and was in financial trouble. During his presidency, the League liberalized its requirements for membership and placed a three-year limitation on Board membership. This condition continues today. Under Fausett, the League embarked on a greatly broadened approach to teaching and included teachers with radically different points of view on the staff.
Fausett also studied fresco painting in France and mosaics in Germany and Italy. He worked on murals for numerous important buildings including the Nebraska State Capitol, St. Bartholamous Church in New York, Irving Trust Co. in New York, Wall Street in New York City, the Foreign Exchange Telephone Building in New York City, the Baltimore Trust Co. in Maryland, Union Station in Kansas City, at the Chicago Worlds Fair, and many others.
He worked on four murals under WPA sponsorship, beginning with a mural for his home town in the Price City Hall, which involved nearly two years of work. Fausett also managed to complete other commissions including a large mural in the Union Building of the University of Wyoming and another work at the White Pine High School in Ely, Nevada. In addition, he painted many murals for the LDS Church, including a mural commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the Primary Association(the children's auxiliary).
Fausett's paintings utilized a technique employing gouache and tempera with oil varnishes rather than oil pigment itself. His earlier style partook of the 1930s American Scene art as popularized by Reginald Marsh and others. Later he increasingly employed photographs, especially upon his return to Utah in the 1960s. From about 1942 on, Fausett produced easel paintings of historical subjects and of impressions he retained from his childhood, including military life, ranch scenes, cattle drives, and various recollections of Utah Canyon country.
Lynn Fausett earned a place in Who's Who in New York in 1938, in Who's Who in America in 1940, and was twice listed in more recent years in Who's Who in American Art.