Critically Acclaimed Hans Burkhardt Exhibition

.art news	January 16, 2012
“Hans Burkhardt: Within & Beyond the Mainstream” One of the Most Expansive Exhibition’s in the Getty’s Initiative Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 Through January 31, 2012 at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Click Here for a Video Preview of the Exhibition’s Opening: http://youtu.be/7pRSv-OjVZ0 Hans Burkhardt’s (1904–1994) expansive career and influence in L.A. are the focus of a survey exhibition of paintings and drawings titled Hans Burkhardt: Within & Beyond the Mainstream. The exhibition, as part of the Getty’s initiative Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, extends through January 31, 2012. Burkhardt arrived in L.A. in 1937, following his association with Arshile Gorky, whose studio he shared in New York from 1928-37, Burkhardt represented L.A.’s earliest and most critical link to the New York School. This exhibition juxtaposes Burkhardt’s work with contemporaneous reviews and rare archival documentation spanning more than six decades. Included are important paintings shown in his first solo exhibition at the Stendahl Gallery, and his first museum exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1945, which the L.A. Times called an exhibition of “…dynamic power…a striking transfer of feeling into form.” Following that museum exhibition, Burkhardt was both critically celebrated and “censored,” as his works proved controversial in the years leading up to the McCarthy Era, when modern artists in L.A. were seen as Communist threats. Particularly controversial were his anti-war paintings and Hollywood studio strike paintings, including his “indictment” of then, Screen Actor Guild head, Ronald Reagan. “Less incendiary” subjects also proved controversial, such as his “Crucifixion Series” - condemned for his use of red color and abstract style, regarded as subversive; examples of which are included in Hans Burkhardt: Within & Beyond the Mainstream. Works of the 1950s onward were hugely influential to young artists emerging onto the scene. Artists ranging from Ed Kienholz, John Altoon and Karl Benjamin to Tony Berlant, Michael C. McMillen etc, were impacted by Burkhardt’s independent and provocative works, as he received extensive critical recognition. In the 1950s alone, Burkhardt had an impressive 23 solo exhibitions including a 10 year Retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum, as well as museums in the U.S., Mexico and the Sao Paulo Biennale. In the 1960s Burkhardt was the subject of museum retrospectives at San Diego Art Institute and San Diego Museum of Art and afforded a 30 year retrospective exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum, San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor and Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Also shown in the Rutberg exhibition are Burkhardt’s profound anti-war paintings of the 1960s and 70s, reacting to the Vietnam War, prompting art historian Donald Kuspit to cite: “Burkhardt is the master - indeed the inventor of the Abstract Memento Mori.” Throughout these years, Burkhardt taught at numerous schools; among them: USC, UCLA, Chouinard, Otis, and CSUN where his influence was profound. The reactive and prescient nature of Burkhardt’s work is evident in this exhibition, through the earliest anti-war subjects dating as early as 1938 through his final painting dating 1993. His “Graffiti Series” of the early 1980s shows Burkhardt to have been among the earliest responses to graffiti art. In 1992 Hans Burkhardt received the American Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Hans Burkhardt was born in 1904 in Basel, Switzerland. He arrived in New York in 1924. When he arrived in Los Angeles in 1937, he represented the most critical link between L.A. and the New York School, as he was part of its genesis. Burkhardt lived in Los Angeles until his death in 1994. Hans Burkhardt: Within & Beyond the Mainstream is part of the Getty initiative Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration brings together more than sixty cultural institutions and selected private galleries from across Southern California for six months to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Hans Burkhardt’s career was the most expansive in L.A.’s history, spanning more than six decades, influencing generations of artists. Hans Burkhardt: Within & Beyond the Mainstream extends through January 31, 2012 at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts located at 357 N. La Brea Avenue. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., and Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. The exhibition is presented with the support of Consulate General of Switzerland. The estate of Hans Burkhardt, The Hans G. & Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation, is exclusively represented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts. For further information on the works of Hans Burkhardt please contact Jack Rutberg Fine Arts at Tel (323) 938-5222 or Email jrutberg@jackrutbergfinearts.com Current Reviews on this Exhibition:• Art Ltd. Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/7jezl8d • Bureau of Arts & Culture: http://tinyurl.com/7tlz5pr • Artscene: http://tinyurl.com/7lpr2sm • Artweek.LA: http://tinyurl.com/75hzhaq • Artillery Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/6t4oa8j • The De Loffre Post: http://tinyurl.com/76ztu64 As part of the The J. Paul Getty Museum’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, Hans Burkhardt works are featured in the following museum exhibitions: • Natural History Museum of Los Angeles CountyArtistic Evolution: Southern California Artists at The Natural History Museum, 1945-1963 Through January 15, 2012 • Pasadena Museum of California Art L.A. Raw: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles, 1945-1980 January 22, 2012 – May 20, 2012 • College of the Canyons Hans Burkhardt Drawings Opens January 31, 2012 • Santa Barbara Museum of Art Pasadena to Santa Barbara: A Selected History of Art in Southern California 1951-1969 February 11, 2012 – May 6, 2012 • Los Angeles Municipal Gallery Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery Through February 12, 2012 • San Diego Museum of Art Experiments in Abstraction: Art in Southern California, 1945 to 1980 Through February 19, 2012 • Pacific Asia Museum 46 N. Los Robles: A History of The Pasadena Art Museum Through April 8, 2012 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts357 N. La Brea Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90036 T: +323 938.5222 www.jackrutbergfinearts.com It's LIQUID News is an e-mail announcement service that provides information about exhibitions at some of the world's leading art galleries selected. It's LIQUID News reaches the combined audiences of International Art Fairs, galleries, museums, and is thus a powerful tool for getting directly to this influential audience with information about exhibition programs and other events. International galleries, museums, institutions, private and public groups, artists, architects, designers, are invited to join It's LIQUID News service. Each advertisement takes the form of an e-mail announcement, and features a press release, an image, and a link to the announcer's website. 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