Hans Burkhardt:
the California State University Northridge collection
August 25 - October 11 , 2008
Reception: Friday, September 5 7-9pm
Gallery Talk with curator Professor Betty Ann Brown: Monday, August 25 10am
Hans Burkhardt; the CSUN collection is a selection from nearly 1,000 works the artist donated
to the university where he taught throughout the
1970s and 1980s. Burkhardt’s work engaged several
visual languages: lyrical naturalism, modernist
abstraction, and potent expressionism. In painting, drawing
and printmaking, he addressed the visual delights of
everyday life and the horrors of war, the truths of love and
the lies of government. The diverse formal and emotional
territories of his work are united by Burkhardt’s humanistic
vision and astonishing technical skills. He created images
of sumptuous beauty and searing commentaries on the social
and political issues of the time. In doing so, he made a unique
and lasting contribution to twentieth century art.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with essays by
exhibition curator and CSUN Art History Professor Betty Ann Brown,
CSUN Chicano Studies Professor Margarita Nieto, University
of California, Berkeley Professor Emeritus Peter Selz and gallerist
Jack Rutberg.
Image: Tropical Landscape, 1955-56
