The Utah Museum of Fine Arts opened Natural Revelations, a Susan Swartz solo exhibition, on January 11, 2008. The exhibition ran through April 13 of that year and featured impressionistic work that marked the artist’s entrance into the world of abstraction following a life-threatening battle with Lyme disease and mercury poisoning. Subjects included water lilies, trees, skies, and heaven; one piece in particular, Serenade of Lilies, took Swartz an entire year to paint in the depths of her illness.
“While grounded in the real world of nature, Susan Swartz’s work also connects us to the pure energy and devotion to color that has characterized abstract art from the mid twentieth century...Susan Swartz creates art that expresses her deep love of her craft, or nature, or the spiritual—and inspires us, as viewers, to pause and take stock of our own relationship to the earth, to the divine and to future generations that will inherit the globe we have inhabited."
- UMFA Director, David Dee
The opening reception and gala included a major fundraiser dedicated to the expansion of the museum’s exhibition and acquisitions program featuring words and performances by then Governor Jon Huntsman, Music Director of the Utah Symphony Keith Lockhart, and Harvard Divinity School’s Dean William Graham.
During the run of Natural Revelations, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts added Steadfast Strength to their permanent collection.
The Natural Revelations book was released concurrently with the exhibition and features an introduction by Robert Coles and a conclusion by Dr. Jane Goodall.