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AVARD FAIRBANKS

1897-1987

BiographyCyrus Dallin (q.v.) was not present in Salt Lake City for the 1897 "Brigham Young Monument" ceremonies, but another Utah sculptor made "an appearance" here of that year. With the birth of Avard Tennyson Fairbanks, tenth son and youngest child of J.B. (q.v.) and Lilly (Huish) Fairbanks, he showed a very early aptitude for sculpture, and eventually followed in the footsteps of many other locally connected artists of the period with study first in the eastern U.S. and then in Paris. In his time, Fairbanks became the best known among the traditional realist sculptors working in the State of Utah. The leading member of a family that has produced several artists working in the third dimension, this Fairbanks contributed a great many pieces familiar to the Utah public. Born in Provo in the "unveiling year," young Avard was a child prodigy who, at the age of thirteen, was taken to New York by his father to study at the Art Students League, exhibit that same year at the National Academy of Design, and then be off in 1913 to Paris. Eventually, Professor Avard T. Fairbanks was teaching at the University of Michigan when his "call" to go home to Utah came in December 1946 to become the first dean at the University of Utah's College of fine Arts. He was actively associated with the school until his retirement in 1965, and is widely recognized as the one to legitimize the nude figure in Utah art. (b. March 2)

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. ARTISTS OF UTAH. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999: 85.

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