Tingting Wei

Charles Burchfield at the Whitney

Whitney's Fridays are pay-as-you-wish, so my friend and I decided to venture out and

take advantage of this promotion. We were extremely lucky to catch a giant floor showing of

Charles Burchfield. I'd actually never seen any of his paintings (which apparently are more than

2400 in number) because most of them are watercolor, meaning unless the museum who owns

them wishes to destroy them, they must remain protected in the dark for most of the year. The

collection in Whitney contains over 200 watercolors and sketches. I happened to catch a tour,

and found the expert narration particularly enlightening.

Charles Burchfield was a painter from the early 1900's until he died in the 1970's. He's

one of the rare painters who actually produced his most impressive pieces towards the later years

of his life (I was surprised to find out that most painters, except the occasional Picasso or

Matisse, actually reached their peak during their youth). He stayed away from the New York

avant-garde American paint scene for his entire life, instead choosing to live in two rather remote

towns. In fact when MoMA picked him to do the first solo show ever, he didn't show up to his

own opening. His continual rejection of urbanization actually led to the most fascinating

observations of nature, which he then internalized (like the German expressionists, who believed

in a very personal portrayal of life) and recreated in art. What I found most amazing about his

paintings was their illustrative property (he literally drew various trees/plants/insects/birds and

even sound) combined with a very internalized abstraction that created an entirely unique

experience. They were at once recognizable yet phantasmagorical, real yet surreal, narrative yet

schizophrenic--but perhaps most importantly...they were astoundingly beautiful. Whitney's

method of circularly unraveling his chronological development really helped shape an

appreciation for his psychological, autobiographical, and symbolic contexts.

Burchfield had three major stages throughout his life, beginning with his maturation in

his "Golden Age," a period in which he painted generally dark, critical paintings, yet always

retained a fragment of hope/light, sometimes in the shape of a candle, sometimes with the rays of

the sun. These paintings demonstrated his early-on developed notion of "notan," which is an

Asian discipline that involves combining the lightest lights with the darkest darks. Burchfield

rarely uses value, instead focusing mainly on primary and secondary colors in order to create

cohesive yet well-contrasted compositions.

As he aged and married, he worked for a wallpaper company, and so began his midlife

slump, where his paintings grew tighter, more realistic, more controlled, and overall--in my

opinion--boring. He pushed nature into the background, instead emphasizing houses and in

particular, industrialization. These paintings continued to be gloomy, but mysteriously, they

continued to sell well during the Depression. He managed to support his family simply by

painting.

In his later life, Burchfield decided to actually revisit his earlier paintings (which he must

have felt were more interesting) and expand them. He would literally attach more paper and

draw more compositions around an original piece. These later works were grandiose and

vibrant, particularly beautiful, and show a return to an appreciation of nature. Apparently he also

returned to the Christian faith after adamantly rejecting organized religion early on in his life; for

many on the tour, this created a definite religious context.

I personally believe this was a very successful composition of artworks; the curator did a

good job in bringing Burchfield out from the shadows and making him interesting for artists and
non-artists alike. Perhaps it was a tad safe and expected, seeing as Whitney has a reputation to

keep. But Burchfield's paintings deserve just as much recognition as Hopper or any of the other

Americana painters of the time, and it takes a museum of Whitney's reputation to successfully

represent him. I really enjoyed the experience, and considering how much I learned, I will

definitely be taking advantage of the free tours they offer in the future.