Power Couples: The Pendant Format in Art

A pair of iconic tabletop seasonings. Secret lovers. Well-heeled newlyweds. Gothic churches. Iconic landscapes. Kittens.

"Power Couples: The Pendant Format in Art" explored works of art conceived as pairs and examines how timeless pairings from sixteenth-century Europe to contemporary Utah illuminate of-the-moment ideas.

Curator of European, American, and regional art Leslie Anderson conceived and organized the exhibition, the first of its kind devoted to a comprehensive look at the pendant format and the artistic strategies at play in such works. Drawing chiefly from the Museum’s dynamic collection, "Power Couples" explored how artists have used the pendant format across media, cultures, and time periods to explore gender roles and social status; to present moments of before-and-after, cause-and-effect and departure-and-return; and to compare and contrast familiar stories and ideas.

Visitors were encouraged to engage with these concepts through a variety of in-gallery experiences such as dressing up to create your own pendant, a magnet board that allowed you to change and disrupt the gender roles of Barthel Bruyn the Younger’s Portrait of a Gentleman and Portrait of a Lady (ca.1555–1565), and more.

Visitors found new acquisitions, perennial favorites and rarely seen, recently conserved objects of European, American and Asian art as well as select loans from other museums in a variety of mediums: paintings, prints, sculpture, photographs and video art.

Accompanied by a symposium that drew speakers from Europe and across the US.

Named one of the "Top 10 Moments of the Utah Enlightenment for 2019" by The Utah Review.

Received the Utah Museums Association Award for Excellence in 2020.