![]() | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies .(April 2020) |
Dennis Von Smith (born 1942) is an American sculptor. He is a Latter-day Saint and some of his artwork deals with LDS themes.
He is most noted in LDS circles for having created most of the statues that form the Monument to Women Memorial Garden in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Smith was born in Alpine, Utah in 1942 where he lived until 1961 when he left on a two-year LDS missionary in Denmark. [1] He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1966. [2] He was accepted into the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and returned to Utah in 1968. [1]
Smith began his art production in 1968, working in his father's chicken coop. [3]
Smith created a sculpture named "Christina" that is named for his Danish immigrant great-grandmother and is in Copenhagen that portrays her having a strong faith. [4] There is also a casting on "Christina" in the Statue Garden at Brigham Young University between the Museum of Art and the Harris Fine Arts Center.
Another one of his statues, this one in Rebild, Denmark represents an LDS emigrant family about to depart Denmark. [5]
There are also works by Smith in the Salt Lake City International Airport and Primary Children's Medical Center. [2]
In 1989, Smith's Signing of the Constitution sculpture was placed in US embassies in Moscow and London due to a donation of money from Richard Headlee.
Smith's In The Family Circle was given to Joan Bolger, wife of New Zealand's prime minister James Bolger by Richard G. Scott and other church representatives in 1996. [6]
His studio is located in Alpine, Utah, and he is a longtime resident of Highland, Utah.
His First Step statue has also been presented to many dignitaries by the church, including president George H. W. Bush. [7]
In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Latter Day Saints refer to as Elohim, and the term Godhead refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Latter Day Saints believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three distinct beings, and that the Father and Jesus have perfected, glorified, physical bodies, while the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body. Latter Day Saints also believe that there are other gods and goddesses outside the Godhead, such as a Heavenly Mother—who is the wife of God the Father—and that faithful Latter-day Saints may attain godhood in the afterlife. Joseph Smith taught that God was once a man on another planet before being exalted to Godhood.
David Oman McKay was an American religious leader and educator who served as the ninth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1951 until his death in 1970. Ordained an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1906, McKay was a general authority for nearly 64 years, longer than anyone else in LDS Church history, except Eldred G. Smith.
The Encyclopedia of Mormonism is a semi-official English-language encyclopedia for topics relevant to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The five-volume texts have been digitized and are available for free online via the Harold B. Lee Library's official website.
The Journal of Discourses is a 26-volume collection of public sermons by early leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first editions of the Journal were published in England by George D. Watt, the stenographer of Brigham Young. Publication began in 1854, with the approval and endorsement of the church's First Presidency, and ended in 1886. The Journal is one of the richest sources of early Latter-day Saint theology and thinking. It includes 1,438 sermons given by 55 church leaders, including most numerously Brigham Young, John Taylor, Orson Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, and George Q. Cannon.
James C. Christensen was an American illustrator and painter of religious and fantasy art.
Carl Christian Anton Christensen was a Danish-American artist who is known for his paintings illustrating the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Of him it has been said that he "did more than any other person to capture the images of the history of Mormon migration to Utah and the life lived there".
Moroni, according to the Book of Mormon, was the last Nephite prophet, historian, and military commander who lived in the Americas in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. He is later known as the Angel Moroni, who presented the golden plates to Joseph Smith, who translated the plates upon which the Book of Mormon was originally written.
The Church History Museum, formerly the Museum of Church History and Art, is the premier museum operated by the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is opposite the west gates of the church's Temple Square.
Danquart Anthon Weggeland, known as Dan was an artist and teacher in the early Utah Territory. He was sometimes referred to as the "Father of Utah Art".
Since its organization in New York in 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a presence in Canada. The first Latter Day Saint missionaries to preach outside of the United States preached in Upper Canada; the first stake to be established outside of the U.S. was the Alberta Stake; and the Cardston Alberta Temple was the first church temple to be built outside of the current boundaries of the United States.
Soren Edsberg is a Danish-born American painter. His work has been highly praised by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer.
Alvin L. Gittins was an English-born artist who was a professor at the University of Utah. He has been described as "one of [the United States] greatest portrait artists ever".
Wulf Erich Barsch von Benedikt is an American Latter-day Saint artist and professor at Brigham Young University (BYU).
Reed Connell Durham, Jr. is a historian of the Latter Day Saint movement and former director of the Institute of Religion in Salt Lake City, Utah for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Durham is remembered for a controversial speech given in 1974 about Freemasonry and the Latter Day Saint movement.
Franz M. Johansen was a Latter-day Saint sculptor and an emeritus professor at Brigham Young University (BYU). He has been called the founder of the LDS contemporary art movement that expresses spiritual belief through the human form.
John Willard "Will" Clawson was an American, Utah-based artist, in the late-19th and early 20th-century.
Torleif Soviren Knaphus was a Norwegian-born artist and sculptor in Utah, primarily known for sculptures for and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mormon art comprises all visual art created to depict the principles and teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as art deriving from the inspiration of an artist's LDS religious views. Mormon art includes painting, sculpture, quilt work, photography, graphic art, and other mediums, and shares common attributes reflecting Latter-day Saint teachings and values.
Johan H. Benthin (1936–2006) was an artist from Denmark. He mostly did painting on canvas, but also did relief sculpture, murals, and other works. His work is in permanent collections in the Netherlands and the United States.
![]() | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dennis Smith (sculptor) . |