{"product_id":"charles-e-burchfield-the-sacred-woods-9780791417836","title":"Charles E. Burchfield: The Sacred Woods","description":"\u003cp\u003eCharles E. Burchfield: The Sacred Woods explores the underlying spirituality of American painter Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967). Author Nancy Weekly  the Charles Cary Rumsey Curator of the Burchfield Art Center  traces the evolution of his art and philosophical fluctuations. She identifies his affinity for developments in 19th century art and literature  including pantheism  luminism  romanticism  and transcendentalism. The book celebrates the 100th anniversary of Burchfields birth. It is complemented by 40 color plates and 60 black and white illustrations. Burchfield was born in 1893 in Ashtabula  Ohio  and grew up in Salem  Ohio  which is depicted in youthful studies of nature  painted until he graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1916. His early work shares decorative compositional qualities with 19th century Japanese woodblock prints and reveals the influence of prevalent pantheistic philosophies and the literature of American authors  such as Henry David Thoreau  Walt Whitman  and Ralph Waldo Emerson. During 1917  which Burchfield called his \"golden year \" he exaggerated natures sounds and movements in synesthetic  animated fantasies and invented a highly personal set of symbols he called \"Conventions for Abstract Thoughts\" to represent dreaded human emotions such as fear and morbidness. Surprisingly  during the 1920s when Burchfield still harbored the doubts of his youthful apostasy  he produced a small number of prints  drawings  and paintings based on Biblical subjects. After designing wallpapers for the M. H. Birge \u0026amp; Sons Company in Buffalo  New York from 1921 to 1929  the artist resigned to devote himself fully to his painting  encouraged by Frank K. M. Rehn of New York  who offered to be his art dealer. Burchfield became known as a painter of the American Scene  the champion of unpretentious small town life  as well as the urban documentarian who recorded the ennui of a man-made landscape  often being compared with his Rehn Gallery colleague  Edward Hopper. Dissatisfied with painting realistically  Burchfield returned in the 1940s to his fanciful style of 1917 and expanded old ideas  even the actual paintings themselves  into larger and more meaningful interpretations of nature. A lifetime of spiritual soul-searching and self-doubt  the recurrence of serious illnesses  and the steady persuasiveness of his wife  Bertha  led to Burchfields eventual adoption of the Lutheran faith in 1943-44. Autobiographical  romantic landscapes of this period contain his symbols for mans place in the universal scheme. Majestic  transcendental evocations of the power of nature characterize the last decade of Burchfields works. The pinnacle of Burchfields aspirations is evidenced in his concept of a Mystic North  an imaginary  legendary place of deep mystery and elusive tranquility that he found in the secluded woods of the Western New York countryside. This  coupled with significant childhood memories provided hope for eternal peacefulness and serenity in paintings that are truly visionary. In April 1964  Burchfield wrote  \"...I will always be searching for the ultimate statement. It is better so. The search for a truth is better than the realization. North is an arbitrary term - It is the Pole that my imagination yearns for - \".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67948428623925,"sku":"ByrdShop_0791417832","price":316.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/charles-e-burchfield-the-sacred-woods-9780791417836","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}