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Emerson Burkhart
Four Principles of Democracy, American Scene, Social Realist Patriotism

$4,600
£3,476.95
€4,046.01
CA$6,489.10
A$6,544.31
CHF 3,809.85
MX$79,647.54
NOK 43,663.17
SEK 45,119.35
DKK 30,244.83

About the Item

A rare and ambitious work from one of Ohio’s most distinctive mid-century painters, Principles of Democracy is an extraordinary four-panel watercolor composition that functions as a visual manifesto — part mural study, part civic pageant, part expressionist meditation on American public life. Each of the four vertical panels presents a distinct scene of collective action and civic spectacle: from left to right, athleticism -rowers and athletes in competition; patriotism - a gathering at a columned public building beneath a raised American flag; eductation -students assembled before an arched school, and sacrifice - a final panel of marching soldiers with rifles raised and a red-prowed vessel. The whole reads as a panoramic frieze of democratic life — sport, civic ceremony, public assembly, and military might presented simultaneously, as if seen through four adjacent windows onto the American scene. The palette is bold and expressionistic — deep crimsons, burnt oranges, and rich teal greens against whites and dark grounds, the figures rendered as energetic, semi-abstracted forms in the tradition of Social Realism and the American Scene movement. Burkhart’s brushwork is rapid and gestural; bodies are suggested rather than described, crowds dissolving into flickering strokes of warm color. The four-panel format deliberately evokes the tradition of the mural — unsurprising for an artist who was himself a WPA muralist — and the composition has the monumental ambition of a preparatory study for a large-scale public work. This is Burkhart working at the intersection of his two great passions: the vigorous documentation of American civic life, and the expressive, paint-forward handling that links him to the broader tradition of 20th-century American modernism. Emerson C. Burkhart (1905–1969) was one of the most prolific and individualistic American painters of the mid-twentieth century. Born on a farm near Kalida, Ohio, he studied at the Art Students League in New York before moving to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he worked under the celebrated painter and teacher Charles Hawthorne — the same master who shaped John Whorf. Returning to the Midwest in 1931, he settled in Columbus, Ohio, where he quickly became what contemporaries called a “Columbus institution.” Primarily an American Scene painter, he worked across impressionist and post-impressionist styles, and became particularly known for his vivid documentation of African-American life in Columbus and his richly textured portraits of ordinary Ohio residents. It is estimated he produced some 3,000 works over his forty-year career. Burkhart received two major commissions from the Federal Art Project (WPA) during the Great Depression. The first resulted in a 13-by-70-foot mural titled Music at Central High School in Columbus; painted over in 1938, it was painstakingly restored by 1,000 art students over six years beginning in 1999 and is now installed permanently at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The second commission produced ten life-size murals at Stillman Hall on the Ohio State University campus. His easel work was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Carnegie Institute, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Butler Institute of American Art. He was the subject of a major retrospective at the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts in 1970–1971, and a scholarly monograph, Emerson Burkhart: An Ohio Painter’s Song of Himself, was published by Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Columbus Museum of Art, the Ohio Historical Society, and The Schumacher Gallery at Capital University, Ohio. Presented in a gilt wood frame with a linen mat. Each panel is signed, the first three with the initials "ECB" and the fourth and final, with “E.C. Burkhart.” Overall, the framed work measures 23.5" H x 36.63" W, the visible size of each panel is 16.25" H x 6.38" W.
  • Creator:
    Emerson Burkhart (1905 - 1969, American)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 23.5 in (59.69 cm)Width: 35.63 in (90.51 cm)
  • Medium:
    Watercolor,Archival Paper
  • Movement & Style:
    American Realist
  • Period:
    Late 20th Century
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Marco Island, FL
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: INV8921stDibs: LU2866217917742

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