{"id":163,"date":"2012-02-09T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T02:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondthenotes.org\/blog\/?p=163"},"modified":"2012-02-10T11:21:55","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T16:21:55","slug":"an-introduction-to-charles-burchfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondthenotes.org\/blog\/an-introduction-to-charles-burchfield\/","title":{"rendered":"An Introduction to Charles Burchfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Guide:\u00a0Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), painter<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Charles Ephraim Burchfield<\/strong>\u00a0(1893-1967) was born and raised in Ohio (first in Ashtabula, then Salem). He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and was employed as a wallpaper designer at H.M. Birge in Buffalo, New York. He eventually quit to pursue painting full-time, and lived thereafter in Gardenville (West Seneca), a suburb of Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Burchfield’s middle-period work (roughly the 1920s-early 1940s) focused on realist paintings depicting American small-town and industrial life, which brought him popularity and acclaim in his time. However, the visionary works of his early and late output may appear even more remarkable to us today: Burchfield’s mystical, abstract nature imagery is arrestingly unique.<\/p>\n

The videos below were produced by Beyond the Notes and feature Nancy Weekly, Curator and Head of Collections at the Burchfield Penney Art Center<\/a><\/strong>, who has written and edited several books on Burchfield including Charles E. Burchfield: The Sacred Woods<\/em>, and co-curated the recent exhibit Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fear, Hope, and the Sublime in Burchfield’s Paintings<\/h3>\n

The co-existing themes of fear and hope were central to the character of Burchfield’s artwork. Many of his paintings have an ominous or negative quality, but ultimately his output as a whole may be seen to portray an optimistic outlook.<\/p>\n