The Sphinx And The Milky Way Selections From The Journals Of Charles Burchfield

Mystical and everyday reveries from the visionary American modernist In the early years of the 20th century, Charles Burchfield painted mystic and visionary landscapes, and with some of his contemporaries, including Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe and Grant Wood, can be seen to have built the foundations of a particularly North American sensibility that critic Dave Hickey said "continues to evoke an unrepentant, gnostic vision of this vast, rolling, abandoned continent--America without Europe--America without Americans--a massive, alluring kingdom." For nearly his entire life, Burchfield also kept a journal. Over 54 years, he filled nearly 10,000 pages. To call this journal epic would be an understatement. A masterpiece whose bulk has remained unread, it is a handwritten tome that combines elements of the American nature journal with a dash of 19th-century spiritual autobiography. It is a record of a man who spent much of his life looking at and considering the sky. In this comparatively small selection pulled from the original 62 volumes, we find Burchfield writing about sitting in the grass with his wife to nap and watch the sunset. He writes about the elation he feels at seeing the first flowers in the spring. He writes about the rain, wind and sun. There's the resentment of having a job; the depression that sneaks in as he gets older; sometimes, too, he writes about the state of human progress; and occasionally, thoughts about God. It is the tender record of a life devoted to the essences of earthly beauty. Best known for his romantic, often fantastic depictions of nature, watercolorist Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) developed a unique style of watercolor painting that reflected distinctly American subjects and his profound respect for nature.

pages) by J. Benjamin Townsend. What a great event--the edited and annotated journals of Burchfield Brilliantly edited (from 72 bound notebooks comprising some 10,000 (1893-1967), the preeminent American watercolorist and painter of nature, complemented by 41 color plates and 131 bandw illustrations. And what a journal--Burchfield's intelligence, sensitivity, spirituality revealed in notes on activities, sketching trips, nature observations, personal encounters, literature and music, artistic growth, and religious conflict. Beginning with the summer before his third year of high school and continuing up to nine months before his death, the journals constitute a huge 20th-century spiritual autobiography. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Charles Burchfeild, one of the finest American watercolorists of the 20th century- and perhaps our greatest visionary - used watercolors with weight, power and flexibility to achieve a variety of effects unprecedented in scale and technique for the medium. Working out of the 19th-century Romantic tradition in which nature's primordial energy is revealed throught the drama of human emotions, Burchfield makes the commonplace extraordinary, the everyday miraculous.

A comprehensive overview of the artist's work focuses on Burchfield's expressive watercolors and includes drawing from his 1917 sketchbook, camouflage designs from his tour in the army, and wallpaper designs from the 1920s.

Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865) was the most widely read and respected pre-Civil War American woman poet in the English-speaking world. In a half-century career, Sigourney produced a wide range of poetry and prose envisaging the United States as a new kind of republic with a unique mission in history, in which women like herself had a central role. This edition contributes to the current recovery of Sigourney and her republican vision from the oblivion into which they were cast by the aftermath of the Civil War, the construction of a male-dominated American “national” literary canon, and the aesthetics of Modernism. In this Broadview edition, a representative selection of poetry and prose from across her career illustrates Sigourney’s national vision and the diversity of forms she used to promote it. In the appendices, letters and documents illustrate her challenges and working methods in what she called her “kitchen in Parnassus.”

A comprehensive overview of the artist's work focuses on Burchfield's expressive watercolors and includes drawing from his 1917 sketchbook, camouflage designs from his tour in the army, and wallpaper designs from the 1920s.

Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967) is one of America's greatest 20th-century artists. He was the first artist to be given a solo exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1930, and his status continued to rise with work exhibited and collected internationally, earning awards and national acclaim. From his modest upbringing in eastern Ohio to his mature years in western New York, Burchfield produced a prodigious number of works that revere nature as a sublime combination of profound beauty and awe-inspiring, destructive power. Beyond faithful representation, his work was often imbued with symbols for human emotions and sounds, as well as ways to convey odors and the sense of touch. Industrial pollution and environmental destruction deserved his harshest critiques. He even invented new techniques for watercolor painting to elevate its status as a medium equivalent to oil painting. His practice reflected American life, focusing on landscape as metaphor-illustrating its vulnerability, multisensory dynamism, and spiritual symbolism. Through synopses of lifelong recurring themes, this book investigates the artist's evolving and increasingly complex approach to expression.Author Nancy Weekly, Burchfield Scholar at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, presents Burchfield's life and work in thirteen chapters. Each explores a distinct aspect of his paintings, sketches, journal passages, and related commentary that align thematically. Transcending conventional chronology, A Lifetime of Themes reveals the unique and often layered facets of Burchfield's creative vision, exploring recurring motifs and inspirations throughout his career. He stands uniquely apart from other artists of his era with sensory vignettes the viewer seeks to enter, to see, to hear, to feel a shared transformative experience.The 160-page book has color 124 illustrations, Acknowledgments by Executive Director Scott Propeack, an Introduction and texts by Burchfield Scholar Nancy Weekly, quotations from Charles E. Burchfield, and a list of illustrated artworks.

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A visual feast of eclectic artwork informed and inspired by spiritual beliefs, magical techniques, mythology and otherworldly experiences. Mystical beliefs and practices have existed for millennia, but why do we still chase the esoteric? From the beginning of human creativity itself, image-makers have been drawn to these unknown spheres and have created curious artworks that transcend time and place – but what is it that attracts artists to these magical realms? From theosophy and kabbalah, to the zodiac and alchemy; spiritualism and ceremonial magic, to the elements and sacred geometry – The Art of the Occult introduces major occult themes and showcases the artists who have been influenced and led by them. Discover the symbolic and mythical images of the Pre-Raphaelites; the automatic drawing of Hilma af Klint and Madge Gill; Leonora Carrington's surrealist interpretation of myth, alchemy and kabbalah; and much more. Featuring prominent, marginalised and little-known artists, The Art of the Occult crosses mystical spheres in a bid to inspire and delight. Divided into thematic chapters (The Cosmos, Higher Beings, Practitioners), the book acts as an entertaining introduction to the art of mysticism – with essays examining each practice and over 175 artworks to discover. The art of the occult has always existed in the margins but inspired the masses, and this book will spark curiosity in all fans of magic, mysticism and the mysterious.

Marianne Boruch's patience "allows her to see what is there with a jeweler's sense of facet and flaw" (Poetry magazine).