Tree of Utah Virtual Cache
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An 87 foot high sculpture transforming the flat landscape and a long drive into something to talk about.
Swedish artist and sculptor Karl Momen, while driving through Utah on Highway 80 en route to California, had a "vision" of a Tree in the midst of that barren desert. Financing the project himself, he put his "vision" to form and during 1982-1986 created an 87' high sculpture in that desert and called it The Tree of Utah. He then donated his "Tree of Utah" to the State of Utah.
Momen's Tree of Utah is located in the barren wasteland where the crew of the Enola Gay practiced their bombing runs before proceeding on to Hiroshima, and where members of the ill-fated Donner Party were tragically delayed before their awful demise in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is into this heroic and severe environment that Momen introduced his bold work. Ultimately it could be said that the Tree of Utah was created by an unlikely visitor from a foreign land, who, through his indomitable spirit and creative talent, paid a unique and unexpected tribute to the beauty of the Great Western Desert.
About Karl Momen:
Swedish artist Karl Momen was born in 1934 near the Russian border in Meshed, Iran. He began to paint when he was seven years old. Painter Urie Popow offered Karl art lessons. Popow had been an influential avant garde painter in Russia before the Revolution. He introduced Karl to the work of Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935), Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), El Lissitzky, (1890-1941), as well as other Russian Constructivists and Suprematists. Karl did not know who these painters were at the time and could not understand why they would paint abstract geometric images, but he was intrigued by their work.
At the age of fifteen, Karl was commissioned to paint a six-foot high official portrait of Stalin. Some years later, when the Shah of Iran returned to power, Momen was commissioned to paint a similar portrait of the Shah—twelve feet high.
Following the completion of his academic education in 1954, and military service at the academy in Tehran, he traveled to Stuttgart, Germany, to begin his studies in architecture at the Kunst Academy. A few years later he me Max Ernst (1891-1975), a guest professor at the Academy, and they established a long-standing friendship.
Momen completed his training in art and architecture, first in Germany and then in Sweden. A highly respected architect in Stockholm, he gave up his architectural work and devoted himself entirely to art. He occupied himself supplying a waiting list of over forty European companies with paintings and sculptures produced under his hand.
He held important solo exhibitions in New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Stockholm, Monte Carlo, and Salt Lake City. Exhibitions of his paintings and sculpture may be found at various museums, art centers, culture centers in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Momen has acquired a residence and studio in the area of San Francisco, California, to escape the harsh Swedish winters.
Discription from "Vision in the Desert" a book by Herman Du Toit, Ph.D - ISBN 1888106891
Palque
The plaque at the base of the tree reads:
The Tree of Utah
(Metaphor)
by Karl Momen
Completed January 1986
"A hymn to our universe, whose glory and dimension is beyond all myth and imagination" Karl Momen
Utah State DFCM Collection of Fine Art
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