Charles Burchfield at the Whitney
http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/blog/museums/heat-waves-in-a-swamp-charles-burchfield/858/
Monsters behind a tree, ghosts in the attic, heat waves in a swamp… all byproducts of an overactive child’s imagination, perhaps? Not if you’re seeing the work of Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), as wonderfully surveyed in the Whitney’s current exhibition — Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield — intriguingly curated by artist Robert Gober. By capturing fears and emotions, Burchfield takes us a step toward conquering them. His work is a staple of American art history, particularly the expressionist branch, but a small percentage of it hangs in public collections. So this assembly, drawn from public and private collections, is a rare chance to see this artist’s complexity and consistency, through Oct 17.
In his 30s, he began to create images of simple, haunting resonance. He visualized the invisible — the noise of insects, the pealing of church bells, the dagger of icy winds. He imbued nature’s inhabitants with personalities, depicting a row of sunflowers like a perp lineup, tree root systems as a macabre band of conspirators. Some of these mostly watercolor paintings look almost cartoonish, but their emotional effect is undeniable.
