The Art of a Lifetime: USU Galleries Present Marion Hyde Retrospective

The Marion Hyde Retrospective, an exhibition celebrating the art and legacy of the late Utah artist, recently opened in the Tippetts & Eccles Galleries in the Chase Fine Arts Center.

A Utah-born artist, educator and professor, Marion R. Hyde’s lifelong passion for art and history brought him from small-town ranch life to a distinguished 35-year career at Utah State University, where he taught painting, drawing, printmaking and art education, served as department head and inspired generations of students.

The exhibition spans his decadeslong artistic journey from his master's thesis to his retirement works. Matt Hyde, Marion’s son and current art teacher at Bear River High School, curated and staged the exhibition alongside current Art + Design Department Head Kathy Puzey.

Matt said this exhibition is an honor for the family and believes his father would be pleased with the show.

“Outside the family, the university was everything to him,” Matt said. “This is his swan song, his last show at the university to this degree.”

From the time he was a young boy, Matt was exposed to his father’s work and teaching.

“Being department head required a lot of his faculty, because not only was he teaching, but he was also required to do research and produce artwork,” Matt said. “As kids, we would get dragged along to art shows. Whenever we went on a vacation, there was always a stop at an art museum or a gallery somewhere.”

Matt said he saw firsthand how his father’s teaching approach emphasized individual student development, fostering a strong connection and respect.

“He had a great way of just connecting with students, a one-on-one kind of thing so they felt safe with him. As a result, he was able to be quite critical with them,” Matt said. “That relationship connected him to students for generations. And now, the amount of his students who are artists, teachers or art appreciators is immeasurable.”

One of those students was Billie Sessions, who studied under Hyde in 1969 and went on to become a ceramic artist and art educator. During that semester, she was the only student enrolled in his class, giving her a rare opportunity for one-on-one instruction. From that single class, she went on to teach high school art and ceramics in Afton, Wyoming, earned a doctorate in art education, and has since mentored dozens of students who are now teaching high school art themselves.

“The two of us sat at the desks once a week and discussed how to teach high school,” Sessions said. “He was so kind and gentle and treated me like a person. But even in larger classes, he would go around to each person to discuss their work, and it was genuine. He was very tuned in to each person and their art.”

Sessions said when she visited the exhibition, she was struck by the quality and breadth of his work.

“It is one of the most outstanding faculty art retrospectives I’ve ever seen,” she said. “There’s so much through the decades. His printmaking was extraordinary, his wood cuts were exceptional, so finely lined and chiseled in extreme detail.”

Hyde’s art evolved through figurative work in the 1970s, woodcut prints of Mexican landscapes in the 1980s, and a series on Park City in the 1990s. In retirement, he focused on Utah landscapes, particularly Capitol Reef.

“As he got older, his range kind of narrowed down,” Matt said. “He really focused on Utah, and he fell in love with Capitol Reef. It became his spiritual place, his cathedral.”

The exhibition displays Hyde’s art in chronological order, highlighting the evolving nature of his work through different styles and mediums, from silk screens to woodcuts to paintings and drawings.

“The left side of the gallery, as you walk in, goes from the 1960s to the ’70s to the ’80s and into 2000, which were his teaching years,” Matt said. “The right side of the gallery goes from his retirement years, from 2002 to 2025, to his last painting. The last part of the show is the final painting he was working on. He passed away in his studio. He had just signed the painting and, from what we figure, passed away soon after.”

Matt said what’s on display is only a fraction of the artwork his father created over his lifetime.

“What visitors won’t see is that there’s enough of Dad’s artwork to fill this gallery five more times,” he said. “He was incredibly prolific, especially in retirement.”

The exhibition also features excerpts from Hyde’s own writings about his artwork, drawn from reflections he shared during his retirement. Visitors can explore more of Marion’s writing and art on his Facebook or website.

The Marion Hyde Retrospective will be on display now until the end of October in the Tippetts & Eccles Galleries, located in the Chase Fine Arts Center. For more information, visit the events calendar.