On View
Not on viewObject number1992/3.31
Summer Benediction
Artist
Charles Ephraim Burchfield
(American, 1893-1967)
Date1951-1952
Mediumlithograph
Dimensionsimage: 12 × 9 in. (30.5 × 22.9 cm)
sheet: 16 × 11 1/2 in. (40.6 × 29.2 cm)
mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
sheet: 16 × 11 1/2 in. (40.6 × 29.2 cm)
mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LineArt Auction Fund
Exhibition History"Modern Masters from the KIA Permanent Collection," Saginaw Art Museum (Nov. 12 - Dec. 5, 1993); Rankin Center Fine Arts Gallery, Ferris State (Jan. - Feb. 1994).
"36 Regionalist prints from the KIA," Dennos Museum Center (Sept. 8 - Nov. 24, 1996); Ella Sharp Museum, Jackson, MI (May 17 - July 13, 1997); Midland Center for the Arts (Aug. 2 - Sept. 21, 1997).
"Views of the American Landscape: Works from the Permanent Collection," KIA (Dec. 21, 2002 - Jan. 12, 2003).
"Flowers in Art: Selections from the Collection," KIA Long Gallery (May 29 - Sept. 12, 2010).
Double Take: Artists Respond to the Collection, KIA, August 23, 2014 - January 18, 2015.
Passion on Paper: Masterly Prints from the KIA Collection, March 17 - July 15, 2018, Groos GalleryLabel TextBurchfield is one of the great interpreters of the American landscape. His fundamental realism is invigorated by a romantic awe of nature. His watercolors reveal the beauty and spirituality he found in familiar outdoor scenes. Burchfield produced a very limited number of prints during his long career. Summer Benediction is one of only three Burchfield lithographs and was a special commission from the Print Club of Cleveland.
"Burchfield was one of America’s most famous artists when the Print Club of Cleveland commissioned this lithograph from him. He was not a printmaker but a great watercolorist with a very calligraphic style. Despite his lack of experience and interest in making prints, he did produce a signature piece with this image that was offered as a privilege of membership to the Print Club.
Lithography has always been characterized as a user-friendly medium for anyone who likes to draw. It was a perfect choice for Burchfield who could translate his lively brushwork into equally animated expressive lines with the specialized crayons and liquid version of the lithographic medium. His gently abstract, semi-surreal depiction of a world teeming with vitality hints at unseen mystical and spiritual forces that were at the center of all his work. His pictures tingle with life (written by Nancy Sojka for Passion on Paper: Masterly Prints from the KIA Collection, 2018)."
