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Artworks
Charles E. Burchfield American, 1893-1967
Civic Improvement, 1927-28Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper mounted on board27 x 36 inches
68.6 x 91.4 cmSigned with the artist's monogram and dated at lower right: CEB / 1927-28Charles Burchfield, Journals, April 13, 1940 In the evening mail word from Rehn that the Int. Business Machines Corp had bought my Civic Improvement for $1500. Edward Hopper chose Civic...Charles Burchfield, Journals, April 13, 1940
In the evening mail word from Rehn that the Int. Business Machines Corp had bought my Civic Improvement for $1500.
Edward Hopper chose Civic Improvement to illustrate his 1928 article on Burchfield for Arts magazine. Hopper selected the watercolor as an example of Burchfield’s critical attitude toward industrialization and the depression that occurred in small towns across America. According to Nancy Weekly, “Burchfield recorded that it was ‘painted as a protest against destruction of the Delaware Avenue elms’ [in Buffalo, New York] that lined the street being widened. Hopper saw both satire and lyricism in how Burchfield painted the trees ‘whose dismembered limbs fall in agonized gestures in the road.’”
Provenance
The artist; to
[Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York];
IBM International Foundation, New York, 1940;
[Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York];
Private collection, New York, until the present
Exhibitions
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June-November 1924 // Montross Gallery, New York, Exhibition of Recent Paintings by Charles Burchfield, March 26-April 7, 1928 // The Downtown Gallery, New York, An Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield and Charles Sheeler, January-February 1931, no. 10 // The Art Institute of Chicago, International Water Color Exhibition-11th Year, April 13-May 31, 1931 // The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-November 1, 1934 // Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit, Michigan, An Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield and Charles Sheeler, January 16-February 2, 1935 // IBM Gallery of Science and Art, San Francisco, California, Golden Gate International Exposition, February 1939-September 1940, illus. // Buffalo Historical Society, New York, An Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield, October-November 1958 // Coliseum, New York, Art–USA–1959, April 1959 // IBM, Twenty-four Watercolors by Americans, 1962 (traveling exhibition) // IBM, Twenty-two Watercolors by Americans, 1966 (traveling exhibition) // IBM, 22 Watercolors by Americans, August 1966 (traveling exhibition) // IBM, American Watercolors and Drawings, 1969 (traveling exhibition) // Charles Burchfield Center, Buffalo State University, New York, The Sites of a City: Charles Burchfield’s Buffalo, September-October 1976 // IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, American Images: Selections from the IBM Collection, June-July 1984 // National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest, September 26, 1997-January 25, 1998, p. 187, no. 67, illus. // Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Madison Art Center, Wisconsin, Illusions of Eden–Visions of the American Heartland, February 18, 2000-August 2001, pp. 92, 164, no. 68, illus. // Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Buffalo, New York, Listening to the Trees: Burchfield Masterworks from the Spiro Family Collection, May 3-November 2, 2003, pp. 10-11, illus. // Debra Force Fine Art, Inc., New York, Charles Burchfield Seasons of Change: 1918-1965, Spring 2011, illus. // Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, New York, Blistering Vision: Charles E. Burchfield’s Sublime American Landscapes, July 8-October 23, 2016, pp. 37-39, illus. p. 39 // Menconi + Schoelkopf, New York, Charles E. Burchfield: Inexhaustible, February 22-April 2, 2021, p. 60, no. 13, illus. p. 39Literature
"Artwork: Civic Improvement," Burchfield Penney Art Center, burchfieldpenney.org/collection/object:v2013-0420-001-civic-improvement/ // Edward Hopper, “Charles Burchfield: American,” Arts 14, July 1928, pp. 5-12, illus. // "New York Season," Art Digest 4, April 1, 1930, p. 16 // "Vanishing Backyards," Fortune I, May 1930, pp. 77, 80-81, illus. // Martha C. Cheney, Modern Art in America, New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill, 1939, pp. 15, 122, 125-126, illus. //
John W. Straus, "Charles E. Burchfield: An Interview with the Artist, An Account and Analysis of His Production and a Catalogue of His Paintings," honors thesis, Harvard University, 1942, no. 557 // Oliver W. Larkin, Art and Life in America, New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1960, p. 480 // Joseph S. Trovato, Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections, Utica, New York: Munson-William-Proctor Institute, 1970, p. 130, no. 722 // “Burchfield to Manage Foundation Devoted to His Father’s Works,” Interviews, February 1987, p. 7, illus. // Virginia M. Mecklenburg, Edward Hopper: The Watercolors, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1999, p. 80, no. 86, illus. // Nancy Weekly, "Charles E. Burchfield: The Romance of Urban Decay, exhibition pamphlet, Burchfield Penney Art Center, 2009, illus.
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