Robert Gober’s Charles Burchfield Homage at Whitney
Robert Gober, on left, at Charles Burchfield survey show at Whitney Museum. Photo: Lindsay Pollock
American watercolorist Charles Burchfield is resurrected in all his eccentric, phantasmagorical glory with a new survey show curated by sculptor Robert Gober. The admirable exhibit opens at the Whitney Museum this week and runs until Oct. 17.
The mellifluous Gober, best known for his meticulous sculptures of sinks and body parts, led a group of journalists on a tour of the exhibition, Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield, earlier this week.
The show begins with a re-creation of Burchfield’s 1930 solo show at the newly minted Museum of Modern Art. Those works date from 1916-1918, an innovative period when the artist’s landscapes were infused with a Gothic mystery, spiritual longing and Dr. Seuss-like invention. He makes the wind hostile and wheat fields foreboding.
Burchfield resided outside of the bohemian Manhattan milieu. He lived in suburban Buffalo, the father of five children. In the 1920s he worked a day job designing wallpaper. The show includes a riveting, claustrophobic room hung with Burchfield’s own sunflower wallpaper.
A long gallery is devoted to Burchfield’s drawing, lively doodles reminiscent of the unique twisted forms he brought to his landscape painting.
Later in life Burchfield re-visited his early work for inspiration. A circa 1944-1950 sheet of cream paper is covered with cursive text: “Before starting work go thru all the former material…many things of vital importance have been lost sight of.”
Robert Gober at Whitney Museum. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Robert Gober at Whitney's Burchfield exhibit. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Charles Burchfield "Decorative Landscape: Shadow" 1916, Munson-Williams Proctor Art Institute Museum of Art, included in Whitney Museum survey. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Robert Gober at Burchfield exhibition Whitney Museum. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Charles Burchfield "The Last Rays," 1920, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Robert Gober at Burchfield exhibition Whitney Museum. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Charles Burchfield exhibit at Whitney Museum of American Art. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Robert Gober at Burchfield exhibition Whitney Museum. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Robert Gober discussing Charles Burchfield expansion sketch at Whitney. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Robert Gober addressing room of journalists at Charles Burchfield Whitney Museum show. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Robert Gober with Charles Burchfield's "Midsummer in the Woods" 1951-59, Private Collection. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Vitrine holding some of Charles Burchfield's 10,000 pages of journal writings at Whitney Museum. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Framed oak leaf which inspired a Burchfield painting. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Charles Burchfield "Decorative Landscape: Hot Morning Sunlight" 1916 Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, Museum of Art. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Entrance to Whitney Museum's Charles Burchfield survey. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Catalog for Charles Burchfield's 1930 MoMA show, on display at Whitney Museum. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Charles Burchfield's sunflower wallpaper at Whitney Museum. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Charles Burchfield catalogs on view in Whitney Museum lobby. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
