Henry Neil Rasmussen was born in Salt Lake City in 1909. A modernist painter, his work was exhibited locally and nationally. He was also the author of several books on painting technique and design. He died in 1970.

Rasmussen studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930, and at the American Academy of Art inn Chicago. He taught Utah's Art Barn and at the Utah Art Center from 1935 until 1941.Although he worked with Utah painter and muralist Lynn Fausett on the Barrier Canyon project, he was primarily a modernist painter.

Examples of his work include Allegory of War (1943), Fish and Sails (1947), and Still Life with Fish, Fork and Spoon (1947). Rasmussen's worked was exhibited at the Utah State Fair in 1937, at the World's Fair in New York in 1939, and at the Denver Art Museum in 1940.  Brigham Young University owns Rasmussen's studio collection.

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

Henry N. Rasmussen worked on the Barrier Canyon project with Lynn Fausett. Among Fausett associates of that period, the artist's painting is definitely the only body of work that must be called “modernits.“ A Utahn, Rasmussen went from early training at the American Academy of Art (1930) and Art Institute (1931) in Chicago to accomplish an impressive list of awards and exhibition credits across the country and to also write a number of books on technique and design.

He taught at the Utah's Art Barn and the Utah Art Center (1935-41), the University of Texas (1943-51), the Houston Music Art School (summer 1950), and the Patri School of Art Fundamentals in San Francisco (1953-58), then worked as a guest professor of painting at the University of Buffalo in the late 1950s and 1960s. Brigham Young University owns the studio collection of this artist.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah.

Newspaper Article

"Abstract Utah: Exhibit At Nora Eccles Harrison Museum Of Art Reveals 50 Years Of Artistic Evolution In State." The Deseret News, May 12, 1996.

Books

Davenport, Ray. Davenport's Art Reference. Ventura, CA: Davenport's Art Reference, 2001.

Dunbier, Lonnie Piers on, ed. The Artists Bluebook: 29,000 North American Artists. Scottsdale, AZ: AskART.com, 2003.

Falk, Peter Hastings. The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1888-1950. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1990.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art: Compiled from the Original Thirty-four volumes of American Art Annual--Who's Who in Art, Biographies of American Artists Active from 1898-1947. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1985.

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

Pousette-Dart, Nathaniel. American Painting Today. New York, NY: Hastings House, 1956.

San Francisco Art Association. Painting and sculpture in the San Francisco Art Association. San Francisco, CA: The Association, 1958.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, Donna Poulton, and Janie Rogers. 150 Year Survey, Utah Art, Utah Artists. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2001.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Painting and Sculpture. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1991.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit.  Utah Art. Layton, UT: Peregrine Smith Books, 1992.