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HANS BURKHARDT IN MEXICO : PST LA/LA

3,212 views · Published 24 October 2017 · 23:56 · Indexed 22 October 2026

Channel: ERIC MINH SWENSON ART FILMS · 2017 · Education

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A new Film by Eric Minh Swenson

Filmed on the occasion of the exhibition, “Hans Burkhardt in Mexico”, featuring major paintings from 1950-1960. Jack Rutberg keys upon this important aspect of Burkhardt’s expansive body of work.

As a participating gallery in the Getty’s region-wide endeavor, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts presents “Hans Burkhardt in Mexico”.  This exhibition features major works painted in Mexico by the Los Angeles artist, Hans Burkhardt, over a span of more than 10 years.

Hans Burkhardt was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1904 and immigrated to New York in 1924.  In New York he was associated with and shared the studio of Arshile Gorky before moving to Los Angeles in 1937, representing the most direct link between Los Angeles and the New York School.  He resided in Los Angeles until his death in 1994.

At the time of Burkhardt’s first visit to Mexico in 1950, he was among the most widely exhibited artists of L.A.’s avant-garde, including having been the subject of a solo exhibition in 1945 at the Los Angeles County Museum.  

When Burkhardt arrived in Guadalajara, his unique expressionist sensibility distinguished him from other artists; however, Mexico’s culture and environment proved critical in Burkhardt’s own development. Upon his arrival, Burkhardt – a modernist – was confronted by an ancient culture of contrasts, stating: “Everything was old, antique…What can I paint? I decided I had to study their culture…I painted the soul of Mexico...that there was something better thereafter”.

Mexico’s contrasting architecture and sensual landscape made its impact on Burkhardt. He was particularly moved by its innocence, beauty and its culture, with which he resonated.  Even the hardship of local peasants was something with which Burkhardt had considerable empathy, given the deprivations of his own youth in his native Switzerland.  The mystical reverence of the peasants he witnessed during what seemed to be endless funeral processions affected Burkhardt profoundly, resulting in poignant paintings he referred to as “Burials” and “Journey to the Unknown”.  Among his first paintings were several versions of “Burial of Gorky” (his friend had committed suicide two years earlier) painted in 1950; one exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York that same year. “Hans Burkhardt in Mexico” includes paintings that combine these elements of architecture, ritual and spirituality in an extraordinary manner in masterpieces such as his 1957 painting, “City at Night (Guadalajara)”. 

Needing to return regularly to L.A. to renew his visa, Burkhardt would be received with exhibition offers in L.A. despite its general hostility toward abstract art at that time.  He was also included in museum exhibitions throughout the U.S. and was probably the most widely exhibited artist of L.A., with 23 solo exhibition and 30 museum group exhibitions between 1950 and 1960 alone.  Upon returning to Guadalajara (residing in Zapopan, a nearby town) in 1951, he was honored with a solo exhibition at the Museo Bellas Artes, Guadalajara.  Still deeply impacted by his friend Gorky’s death, he would paint two versions of “Studio of Gorky” in 1951; one was shown at the Whitney Museum in New York that year. 

In 1956, Burkhardt was the subject of a one man exhibition at the Instituto Allende, in San Miguel de Allende.  In 1958, working in San Miguel, famous for its 16th and 17th century architecture, churches and bells, Burkhardt reflected upon the constant ringing of the bells marking the times of day and religious processions, which took on symbolic meaning. Burkhardt would project their meaning and knew that they most often rang, as he stated, “for the one who could no longer hear them”.  The result was Burkhardt’s distillation of the Journey into the Unknown to his ephemeral development of his “Silent Sounds” series, which he continued through 1960, when the Instituto Allende gave Burkhardt his second solo exhibition at that institution.

For more info on Eric Minh Swenson visit his website at emsartscene.com. His art films can be seen at https://vimeo.com/channels/76542

Instagram : @ericminhswenson 

Eric Minh Swenson also covers the international art scene and his writings and photo essays can be seen at Huffington Post Arts : http://m.huffpost.com/us/author/eric-minh-swenson/

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