{"id":21460,"date":"2022-04-10T20:01:06","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T00:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=21460"},"modified":"2022-04-10T20:01:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T00:01:06","slug":"charles-burchfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2022\/04\/10\/charles-burchfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Burchfield: From Rugged Realism To Visionary America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI long for the old forgotten moods,\u201d the painter Charles Burchfield once wrote, \u201cfor endless summer days spent in the Ohio hills \u2026 for the old burning optimism\u2014for the joy of God\u2019s newly created early \u2026 for the old homely interest in common objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

His artistic career is surveyed in \u201cCharles E. Burchefield: A Lifetime of Themes\u201d at the Burchfield Penny Art Center<\/a> in Buffalo, New York, from Dec. 10, 2021, to May 1, 2022.<\/p>\n

Burchfield was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, on April 9, 1893, and grew up in Salem, Ohio. He served in the Army at the end of the First World War, assigned to a camouflage unit. In 1921, he moved to the Buffalo area, designing wallpaper before he devoted himself full-time to art in the summer of 1929.<\/p>\n

His early paintings from the 1910s can be loose and lyrical renditions of landscapes. \u201cIn 1917 I would write out, as I was working on a picture, I would write out what I felt about the subject and write it on the back of the watercolor,\u201d Burchfield said when he was interviewed at his home in West Seneca, New York, in 1959 for the Smithsonian\u2019s Archives Of American Art<\/a>. He recounted an example: \u201cCrabbed old age sits in front of her black doorway without hope for the future, brooding. Spiders lurk in dark corners. The dying plants reflect her mood. The romantic outer moon rises just the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchefield: A Lifetime of Themes\u201d at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, New York, from Dec. 10, 2021, to May 1, 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Burchfield found fame from the 1920s to \u201840s with moody realist depictions of the American Scene\u2014lonely streets, scrap heaps, freight cars under a bridge, grain elevators stark against the sky, the massive counterweights of an iron drawbridge. Some interpreted them as social critiques, but mostly he said he was aiming to convey, as he said of one of his paintings, a \u201crugged dignity that compels our admiration.”<\/p>\n

By the late 1940s, Burchfield returned in a way to his early paintings as he found a visionary expressionist bent in scenes of woods and lightning and fireflies where all seems alive and radiant. It can feel like animism\u2014all creatures and objects and places alive and throwing off waves of spiritual power.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy interest is more in nature now than in man-made things,\u201d he said in the 1959 interview.<\/p>\n

Burchfield kept painting until the the day before he died in January 1967 at age 73. \u201cEvery so often, when a new idea for a manner of working comes to me, I have the feeling that I am just learning how to paint,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt is as if there is a veil between me and the ultimate in painting, and only bit by bit am I allowed to penetrate the mystery beyond that veil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Charles Burchfield painting “October Wind and Sunlight in the Woods.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchfield, “Deserted Miner’s Home,” 1918, watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper laid down on board. (Burchfield Penney Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchfield, “Lavender and Old Lace,” 1939-47, watercolor on joined paper. (New Britain Museum of American Art)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchefield: A Lifetime of Themes\u201d at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, New York, from Dec. 10, 2021, to May 1, 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchfield, “North Woods in Spring,” 1951-64, watercolor and charcoal on joined paper. (Flint Institute of Arts)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchfield, “Light Coming into a Woods,” 1954, watercolor on paper. (Courtesy of Nancy Burchfield)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchefield: A Lifetime of Themes\u201d at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, New York, from Dec. 10, 2021, to May 1, 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchfield, “Mist Phantoms at Dawn,” 1960, watercolor with charcoal on joined paper mounted on board. (Private collection)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchfield, “Moonlight in a Flower Garden,” 1961, watercolor and charcoal on paper. (Burchfield Penney Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchfield, “Fireflies and Lightning,” 1964-65, watercolor, graphite and white charcoal on paper. (Burchfield Penney Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/a>
Charles E. Burchefield: A Lifetime of Themes\u201d at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, New York, from Dec. 10, 2021, to May 1, 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI long for the old forgotten moods,\u201d the painter Charles Burchfield once wrote, \u201cfor endless summer days spent in the Ohio hills \u2026 for the old burning optimism\u2014for the joy of God\u2019s newly created early \u2026 for the old homely interest in common objects.\u201d His artistic career is surveyed in \u201cCharles E. Burchefield: A Lifetime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[968],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21460"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21477,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21460\/revisions\/21477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}