charles burchfield | whitney museum of american art, nyc

Ice Glare, 1933

Life in a Small Town:
Charles Burchfield, homebody modernist
reviewed by Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker, July 5 2010

"An illuminating retrospective of the mystically inclined watercolor realist... During the Second World War, he experienced a rush of nostalgia for his "Golden Year" (1917) and resolved to pick up where his youthful delirium had left of... Formerly embittered against religion, he embraced his wife's Lutheranism and gave himself over to contemplating nature with spiritual conviction... I used to resist the mystical Burchfield, but the sheer quality of the show's climactic selection of late works overwhelms.... Burchfield said that he liked to think of himself 'in a nondescript swamp, alone, up to my knees in mire, painting the vital beauty I see there, in my own way, not caring a damn about tradition, or anyone's opinion.' And so he did."

Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, 1917

These images are taken from a slideshow of paintings in the retrospective. You can find it here.

End of the Day, 1938

Two Ravines, 1934-1943

Black Iron, 1935

Dandelion Seed Heads and the Moon, 1961-65

Pyramid of Fire (Pyramid of Flame), 1929

The Night Wind, 1918

Song of the Telegraph, 1917-1952