One Utah family’s legacy of creating and advocating for the arts continues at Utah Capitol

Brushstrokes of the Horne family’s lasting artistic legacy are all over Utah — from actual paintings to agencies created specifically to advocate for artists.

More than 125 years ago, Alice Merrill Horne, a still life painter, became one of Utah’s first female state lawmakers after she ran on a platform of advocating for the arts.

Merrill Horne wrote the bill that created the first state-sponsored arts agency in the nation, the Utah Institute of Fine Arts, now known as the Utah Division of Arts & Museums. She helped create more than 30 collections of art in the Beehive State’s public schools, and a sprawling state collection is named after her.

“There are paintings all over our state because of that effort on her part,” Phyllis Horne, Merrill Horne’s granddaughter, said.

The Utah Capitol may not have existed when all that happened (it was built in 1912), but generations later, the Horne family’s art legacy continues to shine within its walls.

Phyllis and her daughter Karen Horne (great granddaughter to Merrill Horne) have long created and shared their art in Utah. The two have a new show on display at the Capitol called “Visions of Rural and Urban Utah,” which was arranged by Stephanie Angelides, the curator and collections manager of the Capitol Preservation Board.

Angelides said last year’s 125th anniversary of Merrill Horne’s state art collection inspired her to curate this exhibit. Merrill Horne’s “legacy continues through her descendants,” she said in an email.

The exhibition, which does not include work from Merrill Horne, is located on the Capitol’s fourth floor, in its northeast and southeast wings, and is free to view through March 9. The building is open to the public Monday - Thursday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday - Sunday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Capturing Utah

All three generations of the Horne women have captured Utah in their art or advocated for the state’s artists.

For 21 years, Salt Lake City’s Horne Fine Art Gallery served as a public space for art lovers to witness the family’s creative prowess. The gallery closed in 2023, and Karen now works from a home gallery.

When Angelides approached the mother and daughter duo about the Capitol exhibit, Karen said it “was kind of nice to have another opportunity to share our work with the Utah public and also celebrate Utah venues.”

That’s what the exhibit does: celebrate the different facets of Utah as the two artists see them. It includes never-before-seen paintings from the Horne family collection, including some that predated the creation of the now-shuttered gallery.

Phyllis’ paintings capture Utah’s rural side. Her technique is detailed and results in hyperrealistic paintings of sights she’s seen around the state — the old Park City, scenes in Heber and Midway, and the colorful flowers in her Holladay neighborhood.

“Even as a little girl, I just always liked seeing what was around me,” Phyllis said. “I just improvised from what I would love to see as I drove around.”

As she would roll through Utah’s canyons, she’d snap photos on her camera, then compose pieces based on the photos. Phyllis was able to capture structures and scenes that no longer exist or look the same, like old homes in Park City.

Karen recalls growing up seeing her mother’s paintings on the easel and driving around as kids to visit their grandmother in Richfield.

“There was just a great celebration of painting in the house. [It] just seemed normal,” Karen said. “Mom would often stop the car, she would see a view she loved, or an old barn or something along the old [U.S.] 89.”

From rural scenes to cityscapes

Karen’s artistic “fingerprint,” as she calls it, is different from her mother’s. She studied and lived in Manhattan for 11 years, focusing on human elements in New York, like people in Central Park.

“I’m really much more at home with and interested in doing urban scenes that] include figures and people,” she said. “There’s more of an opportunity to get wild with the color.”

When Karen moved back to Salt Lake City in 1996, she was immediately captivated by the bustling downtown area. That’s how her paintings in the exhibit came about.

Karen paints vibrant snapshots of downtown — a nighttime look at the Utah Arts Festival and ice skaters at Gallivan Plaza Rink, for example, bathed in electric colors that leap off the canvas.

The two different approaches portray how the two artists have seen and experienced different parts of the Beehive state.

“We kind of had a dialogue going, even though our work was kind of taking different paths,” Karen said, referring to her and her mother’s art.

Both Karen and her mother say they were — and continue to be — inspired by Merrill Horne.

“Alice was inspiring in a number of ways,” Karen said. “She knew art … but she recognized talent … We didn’t meet her, but the ripples of her influence definitely inspired and affected us.”