GE ASSIGNMENT

GE Assignment

April 18, 2021

 

Inspiration Behind the Project:

 

 

Written Assignment:

Charles Burchfield: A Man of Great Expression

As a fellow Ohioan, Charles Ephraim Burchfield was born into the Burchfield family on April 9, 1893.  Raised in Ashtabula Harbor, Burchfield had dreams to pursue the artistic community.  While studying at the Cleveland School of Art, Burchfield was on his way to making a name for himself.

With bills and everyday expenses, Charles found himself straying off his path in order to stay afloat.  He found a means to make ends meet as a wallpaper designer for the M.H. Birge & Sons Company in Buffalo, New York.  While wallpaper design might not have been his intended destination, Charles found a creative outlet that paid well and would lead him to success.  Also, the city of Buffalo, specifically a suburb named West Seneca, would become his muse to his art.  While during his spare time, Charles painted the landscape of the area.  Including both the natural world and the developments of industry in the suburb, this geographical location would weather him through the storm and ease him to not forget the bigger picture that was him pursuing art as his career.  While staying in Buffalo, Burchfield would marry Bertha Kenreich and would go on to have five children; four daughters and one son.

By 1930, Burchfield found himself creating his very first solo exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  His early watercolor pieces from 1916-1918 would be the highlight of the exhibition.  Burchfield found his name listed by Life magazine as one of Americas top 10 painters in 1936, leading his art career to recognition by many, and honored as one of the greats of his time.  By the 1940’s, Burchfield’s Career in the art world was fully thriving, as he created a whimsical collection of pieces labeled Four Seasons.  The pieces engaged in depictions of exaggerated cathedral-like forms that showcased the everchanging forest along the course of a charming seasonal year.

Burchfield as an artist was known for his usage and techniques in watercolors.  He had an intense focus on the natural realm, and loved to draw the changes in seasons, whether that be the falling leaves of Autumn, or the snow dusted forests of Winter, the woods were the centerpiece of many of his paintings.  He also found refuge in drawing the homes of his neighbors, and the different landscapes of the everchanging coexistence of suburban and city realms or natural and industrial viewpoints.

While Burchfield may have been known for painting, he had thousands of sketches that he would use as inspiration, or guidelines for his work – with some of them being the start of a much larger picture.  He is known for various usages of different lines and shading in his works, especially in his sketches.  From darker deeper lines to faint shadows, his works are meant to simulate the real world, but under the lens of his eye.

Burchfield was often described as a painter of emotion and expressed himself through his work.  He once sated, “An artist must paint not what he sees in nature, but what is there. To do so he must invent symbols, which, if properly used, make his work seem even more real than what is in front of him” (“Biography”).  One can vividly see that Charles Burchfield’s paintings, drawings and works are not just an exact picture taken in time, rather, a moment that creates not only mystery, but meaning.  It is as if he found a way to insert the viewer into the drawing in order to get a glimpse of his thought process and the beautiful scenes he saw, and how those scenes guided and told him to express the moment.

After many years of creativity and expression, Burchfield would be truly embraced by the community in ways only one can dream.  He was awarded the Gold Medal of American Academy of Arts and Letters.  He also found a museum dedicated to his life’s work as an artist in Buffalo, and his works will forever live on in numerous art museums across the globe.  Sadly, he passed of a heart attack on January 10, 1967.  However, he will forever be seen as a true American artist whose work was unmatched and uniquely his own.

 

Sources

“Artist to America.” Edited by Penney Art Center Burchfield , Burchfield Penney , 2021,

www.burchfieldpenney.org/collection/charles-e-burchfield/biography/ . Accessed 18 April 2021.

Artists , Artnet. “Charles Burchfield.” Artnet, 2021,

www.artnet.com/artists/charles-ephraim-burchfield/. Accessed 18 April 2021.

“Charles Burchfield.” Edited by Amy Tikkanen, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 6 Jan. 2021,

www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Burchfield . Accessed 18 April 2021.