Hans Burkhardt

Hans Burkhardt
Hans Burkhardt, Untitled, 1950. Oil on canvas
Born	Hans Gustav Burkhardt (1904-12-20)20 December 1904 Basel, Switzerland
Died	Los Angeles, California
Nationality	Swiss American
Education	Cooper Union School of the Arts, 1928-29 Studies with Arshile Gorky At Grand Central School of Art, New York
Known for	Painting, Printmaker
Movement	Abstract expressionism, cubist figure-still life, non objective painting
Awards	Lifetime Achievement Award from American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1992

Hans Gustav Burkhardt (December 20, 1904 – April 22, 1994) was a Swiss American abstract expressionist.

Life and work

In 1924 he emigrated from Basel, Switzerland to New York. He shared Arshile Gorky's studio from 1929 to 1936. When he moved to Los Angeles in 1937, Burkhardt represented the most significant bridge between New York and Los Angeles in that his paintings of the 1930s are part of the genesis of American abstract expressionism. He brought with him many of the nascent ideas of abstract and abstract expressionist painting that had been swirling among New York's artists, foremost among them, Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning. Working independently in Los Angeles, Burkhardt's experimental investigative approach allowed him to parallel, and in many instances anticipate, the development of modern and contemporary art in New York and Europe.

Burkhardt's ability to evoke compelling works of human empathy has led several of today's preeminent art historians and critics to regard many of his paintings to be among the major works of our time. for example, that the art he created in response to war – beginning with the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s and continuing through World War II, Vietnam and Desert Storm – represents a body of work unprecedented in the history of art. In his drawings, primarily through the use of the figure, has reflected the same richness of expressionism and symbolism for which he is known in his paintings.

Hans Burkhardt retired as a professor emeritus from California State University, Northridge after teaching there for ten years. Hans was a friend of the American Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Tobey, who resided in Basel, Switzerland. Hans would often visit with Tobey in Basel.

His unique role as an important American painter is affirmed by the constant interest and continuing reassessment afforded his work. In 1992, Burkhardt was honored as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters' Jimmy Ernst Award. Also in 1992, he established the Hans G. and Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation.

In 1974, Hans Burkhardt said:

Stuart Davis used to come there and Willem de Kooning. He was very quiet. He was a house painter; I was a furniture finisher, but Arshile Gorky always had faith in Willem de Kooning and me. He said, "These two people I think are going to make it."

Selected Major Collections

• British Museum
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles, California
• Kunsthalle
• Basel
• Whitney Museum of American Art
• Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
• Norton Simon Museum
• Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
• Ahmanson Collection
• Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
• California State University, Northridge
• Coca Cola Collection
• Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina
• Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• Detroit Institute of Arts
• Downey Art Museum, Downey, California
• Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
• Hirshhorn Collection, Washington, D.C.
• Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
• Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon
• Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
• Laguna Beach Museum of Art, California
• Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California
• Emily and Joe Lowe Gallery, University of Miami, Florida
• Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
• Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California
• Pasadena Art Museum, California
• Norton Simon Museum
• Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
• San Diego Museum of Art, California
• Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
• Security Pacific Bank Collection. Security Pacific Bank
• Skirball Museum, Los Angeles, California
• Temarind Institute, University of New Mexico. Tamarind Institute, Alburquerqye, New Mexico
• Weatherspoon Art Gallery,University of Greensboro. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina

References

Books

• Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4
• Kuspit, Donald. Hans Burkhardt: Black Rain. (Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 1993.) ISBN 1-880566-10-9
• Selz, Peter. Hans Burkhardt: Desert Storms. (Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 1991.) ISBN 1-880566-00-1
• Bordeaux, Jean-Luc and Melina Wortz. Hans Burkhardt: Pastels, 50 Years of Figurative Expressionism. (Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 1984.)ISBN 1-880566-02-8
• Hans Burkhardt: Paintings of the 1960s. (Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 2008.) ISBN 1-880566-17-6
• California State University, Northridge. Hans Burkhardt: The California State University, Northridge Collection. 2008. ISBN 1-880566-16-8
• Wolfe, Townsend. Hans Burkhardt: Drawings 1932 - 1989. (The Arkansas Arts Center, 1996.)
• Selz, Peter. Hans Burkhardt: Pastelle, Eine Retrospektive Von 1938 - 1983. (Berlin: Galerie Hesselbach, 1993.) ISBN 1-880566-09-5
• Hans Burkhardt: Paintings and Pastels 1988 - 1989 ISBN 1-880566-04-4
• Kuspit, Donald. Catastrophe According to Hans Burkhardt. (Muhlenberg College, 1990.) ISBN 0-9625911-0-6
• Hans Burkhardt: 1950 - 1960. (Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 1987.) ISBN 1-880566-02-8
• Hans Burkhardt: The War Paintings, A Catalogue Raisonne. (Santa Susana Press, 1984.)
• Aurelio de la Vega. Hans Burkhardt: Basel. (Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 1983.) ISBN 1-880566-01-X

External links

• An interview of Hans Burkhardt conducted 1974 Nov. 25, by Paul J. Karlstrom, for the Archives of American
• Interview of Hans Burkhardt, part of Los Angeles Art Community - Group Portrait interview series, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.
• Hans Burkhardt Biography
• The Hans G. and Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation
• Hans Burkhardt Auction results
• Hans and Thordis Burkhardt papers, 1905-1981 Smithsonian Archives of America Art: Materials including lists of works exhibited; exhibition announcements and catalogs; clippings, press releases, and bulletins, and 2 scrapbooks of clippings; and photographs of Burkhardt, his wife Thordis, and others including Mark Tobey and Willem de Kooning.