Burchfield's Influence

Charles Burchfield was one of the finest American watercolor artists of the twentieth century, admired nationally among colleagues such as Edward Hopper. Although he chose to reinvent watercolor painting by initiating unique techniques adapted from the practices of oil painting, Burchfield still inspired artists from all generations who worked more traditionally in watercolor or who excelled in other media. Some Western New York artists met Burchfield through the Art Institute of Buffalo, where he taught courses periodically between 1949 and 1953. Examples selected for this exhibition were meant to illustrate similarities in subject or theme and, in some cases, technique; although there are parallel compositions, they are the result of shared orientations, not mimicry.