Franz Mark Johansen was born in Huntsville, Utah in 1928. Heis a sculptor and the founder of a contemporary symbolic contemporary Church of Latter-day Saints art movement that expresses spiritual belief and that sees the human form. He lives in Provo, Utah.

Johansen studied at Brigham Young University under B. F. Larsen and Roman Andrus. He continued his studies at the California School of Arts and Crafts and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. He was a professor of art at BYU from 1956 to 1987 when he retired as professor emeritus.

Johansen created a two-story high relief sculpture on the façade of the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City and the bronze doors on the Washington Temple. His sculptures Resurrection: Restored 2 Nephi 2:12 (1995) and Portrait Bust of Gerrit de Jong (1962) are featured in the Springville Museum of Art permanent collection.

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

Franz Mark Johansen (1928- ). In 1956, sculptor Warren Wilson was joined on the Brigham Young University faculty by the very talented Franz Johansen at exactly the same time as sculptor Angelo Caravaglia came to the University of Utah. A native of Huntsville, Utah, Johansen studied at Brigham Young University under B.F. Larsen, Glen Turner, and Roman Andrus. His postgraduate education was accomplished at the Illinois Institute of Technology's School of Design, Chicago; the California School of Arts and Crafts, Oakland; the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere, Paris; and the University of Miami Marine Biology Institute, Key Biscayne, Florida. Johansen eventually supervised the design and casting of plaques for the doors of a new 1970s L.D.S. Temple in Washington, D.C. In this realm of architectural sculpture, he followed in the footsteps of Maurice Brooks and Millard Malin. (Brooks and Malin had worked together earlier in the 1950s on the Los Angeles Temple and dealt with a similar commission to Johansen's later one in the East.) Johansen is now a professor emeritus at B.Y.U. with a great record of artistic production and exhibition behind him; he still pursues highly creative solutions in sculpture, painting, and drawing upon the basis of a range of knowledge and talents.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah.

Book

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999.