‘Part art, part history’: The rising cost of Salt Lake City’s mayoral portraits

‘Part art, part history’: The rising cost of Salt Lake City’s mayoral portraits

(Laura Seitz, KSL)


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SALT LAKE CITY — It’s a tradition that dates back more than 150 years.

Lining the walls of the Salt Lake City-County Building are dozens of portraits depicting past mayors of Utah’s capital.

Today, the tradition continues — but at a cost that has crept up.

As part of the mayoral transition expenses, the Salt Lake City Council is slated to consider in a budget amendment Tuesday of $35,000 to cover the cost of outgoing Mayor Jackie Biskupski’s hand-painted portrait, including the frame.

In 2015, Salt Lake City budgeted $30,000 for former Mayor Ralph Becker’s portrait, which now hangs in the halls after it was unveiled earlier this year. Former Mayor Rocky Anderson’s cost $20,000, and former Mayor Deedee Corradini’s cost $15,000, according to Mary Beth Thompson, the city’s chief financial officer.

In a work session last month, no Salt Lake City Council members balked at the proposed price of Biskupski’s portrait when it was briefly discussed. Rather, Councilwoman and now Mayor-elect Erin Mendenhall asked whether the amount was sufficient. Thompson said the city’s finance team completed an “evaluation” and determined it was enough.

The price of the hand-painted portraits have grown year over year due to inflation, increased costs for materials and artist fees, Thompson told KSL. Mayors have the discretion to pick their own portrait artists, she said.

The $35,000 proposed budget amount is only an estimate, Thompson said, and if the cost comes under that amount, the remainder will return to the city’s general fund.

The mayoral portrait is a tradition that dates back more than a century, all the way back to the mid-1800s. The portraits memorialize the history of Salt Lake City’s past leaders in City Hall, just like how Utah’s past governors are memorialized in the Hall of Governors at the Utah Capitol.

“It’s a tradition that’s been happening for decades,” Biskupski spokesman Matthew Rojas said. “There’s a portrait of every single mayor that has served Salt Lake City.”

A portrait of former Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker hangs outside the mayor's office in the City-County Building on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. (Photo: Laura Seitz, KSL.)
A portrait of former Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker hangs outside the mayor's office in the City-County Building on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. (Photo: Laura Seitz, KSL.)

It’s not yet clear who Biskupski will choose for her artist, but Rojas said she’s been considering the same artist that painted Anderson’s and Corradini’s portraits: Galina Perova, a world-renowned artist from Russia. She has done portraits of many prominent Utahns, including former Gov. Jon Huntsman, former University of Utah President Arthur Smith and former Hinckley Institute Director Kirk Jowers.

Perova told KSL in an interview Thursday that her prices have increased over the years due to higher costs for materials, inflation, and the fact that her lifelong career has also grown along with her reputation as an artist. Her portfolio has expanded over the years, and she has won a national award for her portraiture since painting Anderson’s portrait.

”I grow every year,” she said.

Perova said she charges less for portraits of public officials because she sees them as an investment in history. It’s not about the money to her since she said “official” portraits often pay less and are usually more work, but she does them because she feels it is an honor to have the opportunity to paint someone of significance to the city or the state.

She spends countless hours and months on many of these portraits, she said, and the result is more than just a photograph. For every portrait she paints, Perova spends hours with the subject, getting to know them, their environment and their mannerisms before spending months to perfect the painting.

Art also usually appreciates in value over time, Perova noted.

Becker, who chose artist Jeff Hein to paint his portrait, said he “wondered” what a “fair and reasonable” price was for a portrait, so he relied on city finance staff and the Salt Lake City Arts Council to determine the best price.

Portraits of former mayors from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s hang in the Salt Lake City-County Building on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. (Photo: Laura Seitz, KSL.)
Portraits of former mayors from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s hang in the Salt Lake City-County Building on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. (Photo: Laura Seitz, KSL.)

“These are taxpayer dollars,” he said. “I guess I don’t consider myself a judge of that. As someone who believes in art and realizing that almost all artists struggle financially, I didn’t want to contribute to the poverty of an artist. I wasn’t the judge for what was a fair price for an artist, and that’s a decision that was ultimately made by the City Council.”

Becker said the mayoral portrait is “obviously a long, long, long-standing tradition,” calling it “part art, part history.”

“I found anyone who works or visits the city certainly wanders around the halls and looks at what’s on the walls and looks at these portraits,” Becker said. “I actually enjoyed looking at the different mayors and trying to learn a little about them.”

A 2013 art appraisal report obtained from the City Council notes that most mayoral portraits were done by “leading Utah artists of the day, most of whom were chosen for their recognized skill as portrait artists.”

“However, generally speaking, portraits are of little interest in the art market, here or anywhere,” the appraisal states. “Thus, as important as these paintings are to the history and civic identity of the city of Salt Lake, only one has any significant market value: the Enoch Wood Perry portrait of Brigham Young.”

That 1866 painting of Brigham Young — founder of Salt Lake City, the first governor of the Utah Territory, and second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — has a replacement value of about $200,000, according to the appraisal, not including an estimated $10,000 for the portrait’s frame.

While the appraisal report notes there may not be much of a market for the mayoral portraits, it does show replacement costs of some comparable to the cost proposed for Biskupski’s portrait today. For example, the appraisal estimated for Corradini’s portrait, which cost the city $15,000, would cost $34,000 to replace. Anderson’s, which cost the city $20,000, would cost $40,000 to replace.

Former Mayor Ted Wilson’s replacement estimate is listed as $42,000, and former Mayor Palmer DePaulis’ would cost about $38,000 to replace, according to the appraisal.

The city’s art collection at the Salt Lake City-County Building on Washington Square and the Salt Lake City Arts Council’s Art Barn would cost nearly $3.4 million to replace, according to the report.

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