Description
Christ in America
Minerva Teichert, 1949-1951
Lord of the Western Hemisphere, Christ smiles down at its inhabitants and welcomes them with outstretched arms. He invites us to inspect his wounds—tokens of his Atonement—and witness that he rose from the dead. In proof that he is indeed an exalted being of flesh and bone, his arms and hands are bared and his robe billows around his feet.
On the sides are Central American quetzal birds, apt symbols of the resurrected Christ. Their tail feathers echo the lines of Christ’ s robes; and the red on their breasts–the red of his wounds. An aureole bursts around their bodies, faintly reflecting the glory around Christ’s head. (Book of Mormon: 1 Nephi 21:16 and 3 Nephi 11:14)
This piece is part of our Pageants in Paint and Beholding Salvation exhibitions.
What’s Going On?
Central to the image is a standing male figure clothed in a white robe with his hands turned palms up and outstretched. Behind the figure are the continents of both North and South America with blue ocean around them. The image is bordered on each side by insular patterns with geometric designs, dominated in the center by tropical birds with long bluish tail feathers that curl at the end.
More About Teichert
The works of western American artist, Minerva Teichert, have received increasingly popular and critical acclaim in recent years. Today, the LDS community loves Teichert. She is a woman who successfully combined both faith and family and left an extraordinary legacy of artistic production.
Minerva Kohlhepp was born in North Ogden, but grew up homestead farming in the vicinity of American Falls, Idaho. Her father encouraged her childhood sketching. Soon, she developed an “indomitable will to succeed and excel in the field of art.” She taught school to raise enough money to go to Chicago for her art studies.
She attended the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League of New York in the early 1900s. There, mural paintings and theatrical pageants were dynamic components of American popular culture. Teichert embraced these art forms. Following the admonition of her art teacher – the American realist painter Robert Henri – she used the visual language these murals provided to tell the narrative of her religious heritage as well as that of the American West.
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