Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
The Latter-day Saints and “Stalinist Art” Revisited (Part Two)

The Latter-day Saints and “Stalinist Art” Revisited (Part Two)

Last updated on: September 5, 2018 at 9:52 am by Dan Peterson

The Latter-day Saints and “Stalinist Art” Revisited (Part Two) 2018-09-05T09:52:42-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“Hollyhocks” (ca. 1900), by the Swiss-American Latter-day Saint artist John Hafen (1856-1910), a personal favorite of mine (when, of course, I’m not smashing things). He was among the artists sent to study in Paris by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in preparation for painting the interior murals for the Salt Lake Temple. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I’ve been having a little bit of fun with some very silly and unreasonable pseudonymous critics of the Church (and of me) over the question of “Stalinist art” and Mormonism. See, for example:

“The Latter-day Saints and “Stalinist Art” Revisited (Part One?)”

Since my, umm, seething anger over this issue continues to boil completely out of control — in much the same manner that my never-ending rage on scores of other subjects burns dangerously and perpetually — I think I’ll have a bit more fun with it. Or, to put that another way, I think that I’ll vent my unbridled wrath on the subject at least a bit more:

One intrepid art historian among them posts a photograph of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City (formerly the Hotel Utah, originally built in 1909-1911) and juxtaposes it with a photograph of the Hotel Moskva (originally opened in 1935 and oddly misidentified by this critic as the Stalin-era “Duma” or Soviet legislature). The resemblance between the two buildings, in his judgment, evidently provides incontestable proof that Mormon art and architecture are “Stalinist”:

The Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City, originally built as the Hotel Utah

(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Less discerning architectural historians have categorized the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (née the Hotel Utah) as an example of the Renaissance Revival style, plainly failing to notice that it’s actually a specimen of Stalinist architecture avant la lettre. It was designed, beginning in 1909, by the non-Mormon Los Angeles architectural firm of Parkinson and Bergstrom, which had no known ties to either the Bolsheviks or to the, at that time, still obscure Joseph Stalin. It opened in 1911. Joseph Stalin gained supreme power in the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s onward, dying in 1953.

Today’s Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow is a replica, on the same site as the original building, of the Hotel Moskva, which functioned there from its opening in 1935 until its closing in 2002.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

By this critic’s loose standard, the world is positively awash with “Stalinist” hotels, because, after all, in hotel construction, form must more or less follow function:

The Wainwright Building, in Chicago, was designed by the American architect Louis Sullivan (d. 1924), often called “the father of modernism” in architecture, who coined the phrase “Form follows function.” Sullivan argued that that the shape of buildings and objects should be primarily dictated by their intended function or purpose. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Here are a few such hotels, each of them from Washington DC. Scores of similar examples can be found in major cities all across the United States:

The (Marriott) Mayflower Hotel — the largest luxury hotel in the District of Columbia and the longest continuously operating hotel in the Washington D.C. area, sometimes known as the “Grande Dame of Washington”, the “Hotel of Presidents,” and, after the White House itself, as the city’s “Second Best Address” (a description ascribed to President Harry Truman)
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

The Capital Hilton, finished in the 1940s
(Public domain photo by AgnosticPreachersKid for English Wikipedia)

The Omni Shoreham Hotel, in a Wikimedia Commons photo by Jürgen Matern

The (Loews) Madison Hotel (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

The J. W. Marriott Hotel (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)

Posted from Seaside, Oregon

Previous Post

August 31, 2018

“We understood things better there than we do in this lower world.”

Next Post

August 31, 2018 "There is a lesson in the stories of such people for those who understand."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Moses do after breaking the tablets?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Left the camp Fasted for 30 days Returned to Sinai for new tablets Destroyed the calf