Burchfield connects like Wyeth

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on August 25, 2014

For Brandywine Museum of Art Director Tom Padon, there’s a strong similarity between the work of Andrew Wyeth and that of Charles E. Burchfield.

Padon said the new Burchfield exhibit, running now through Nov. 16 at the museum, is part of an initiative.

“We’re looking at a broader scope of American art and tracing back connections of those artists to our collection,” he said. “With Burchfield, there are, we think, really rich affinities to the work of Andrew Wyeth. They were both two of the greatest watercolorists in American art. They both had an obsessive interest in and inspiration from nature.”

Padon added that both artists worked in areas where they lived, Wyeth in Chadds Ford and Maine, Burchfield in Ohio and Buffalo, N.Y.

“Looking at the wider scope helps put our artists in greater context,” Padon said.

One of Burchfield’s pieces on display that Padon said exemplifies that connection to the environment is Early Spring.

It’s one of Burchfield’s later works — still on his easel when he died in 1967 — and Padon said the artist was “feeling the landscape. He’s literally soaking it up in the same way in which Andrew Wyeth did. Wyeth went out on walks all the time, had continued inspiration from the same trees that he saw, the same hills, the river. Burchfield as well continually found inspiration.”

Padon pointed out Summer Afternoon as another example.

“The same way that Andrew Wyeth could paint light – he could make light just like a concrete element — in the same way Burchfield [can make] you feel the atmosphere here, the movement of the insects, the light,” Padon said.

Some of the paintings have a slightly macabre or even semi-psychedelic feeling to them.

Paden agreed saying there is also a reductive quality to some of the work. He likened that aspect to some of Carolyn Wyeth’s paintings.

Because Burchfield’s work is watercolor, it’s light sensitive and shown often, Padon said. The pieces in the exhibit are on loan from other galleries and collections.

Anthony Bannon, executive director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, said Burchfield “knocked it out of the park” with Early Spring.

He said it reflects the passage of time in one picture, the changes of four seasons in one image.

“It has fear, joy, dread and anticipation. Let yourself be carried into his work and he’ll take you on a passage,” Bannon said.

Curator at Burchfield Penney, Nancy Weakly, said Burchfield used landscape as a metaphor for the human experience.

“There’s energy and sound in his work,” she said.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.