Sun and Rocks

Sun and Rocks is possibly the most bizarre landscape that Charles Burchfield ever painted. A molten black sun emits brilliant white and yellow light in various forms. A diamond cross circled by spokes of white rays ignites golden flames of heat along rocky cliffs, surrounds spiky tree branches, edges tumultuous clouds, and flickers throughout the cobalt sky. Very little looks familiar; instead, each element has a distorted resemblance to what we would expect to encounter in a remote landscape. Mesmerized by such a strange world, we want to unravel the hidden meaning of this evocative vision.

This compelling work by Charles E. Burchfield underwent radical changes during the 32 years in which it was painted. In retrospect, three years after the artist finished the painting, Burchfield wrote:

Sun and Rocks [was] an attempt to depict a scene in primeval times, in early spring, when conflicting forces of nature hold sway and seem to fill the earth with violence and chaos.  A great cliff, shaggy with ferns, juts up into the sky; from it, forced loose by the relentless process of erosion, huge boulders have tumbled down the hillside. Among them, hemlocks, torn and twisted by the violence of wind and storm, have managed somehow to sustain life; here and there also, a few wild ginger plants have ventured forth.

Shining from the deep blue cavernous sky, the spring sun—our great day-time star—floods the scene with brilliant light that will heal the wounds of the earth and bring forth new life...

An album of studies in the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation Archives at the Burchfield Penney reveals surprising stylistic and compositional changes as the work evolved from the 1918 painting to what we see today. The “Peter-bird” and its eponymous song virtually disappeared from the original concept of the small 1918 painting that is embedded in the larger masterwork.

Essay by Nancy Weekly. For the complete text and additional images, visit the Exhibition section at YourNewBurchfieldPenney.com.