deep listening: March 2013

I first learned about Charles Burchfield at a rare painting/photography exhibition at the Fraenkel Gallery last September. In these paintings, nature has an intelligence and agency all its own: it twitches, sways and hums. Like the Group of Seven (see preceding post), Burchfield uses painting to enhance his spiritual connection to nature. As the title of the work pictured below suggests, it is God that inhabits every forest and field, animating them. Burchfield not only depicts landscapes aflame with bright, verdant beauty, but forceful, chaotic scenes as well. There is appeal in the power of nature and its ability to promote growth or destruction.

Charles Burchfield, Glory to God, 1949

Charles Burchfield, Glory of Spring (Radiant Spring), 1950

Charles Burchfield, North Wind in March, 1960

Charles Burchfield, Dandelion Seeds Heads and the Moon, 1961-1965

Charles Burchfield, Night Scene, 1935

Charles Burchfield, An April Mood, 1946-1955

Swedish artist, Marcus Ivarsson used an old encyclopedia as inspiration for these landscapes. The archaic monuments/volcanic forms are reminiscent of the clay miniature works of Charles Simonds.

Marcus Ivarsson, Hills album art, 2011

Marcus Ivarsson, Hills album art, 2011

I have been reading Hundreds and Thousands, the journal of painter and Canadian legend, Emily Carr. In her writings, Carr gives detailed descriptions of her travels, the quality of the clouds and air, and the work of other painters in her circle, particularly that of the Group of Seven (not to be confused with the Indian Group of Seven). She described these men as having creating "a world stripped of earthiness, shorn of fretting details, purged, purified; a naked soul, pure and unashamed. . . "(Carr, Emily. Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of an Artist. Toronto: Irwin Publishing. 1966).

A. Y. Jackson, Hills at Great Bear Lake, 1953

Frank Johnston, The Fire Marshall, 1920

Franklin Carmichael, A Northern Silver Mine, 1930

Frank Johnston, Patterned Hillside, 1918

Tom Thomson, The West Wind, 1917

Franklin Carmichael, Bisset Farm, 1933

Lawren Harris, Icebergs, Davis Strait, 1930

Lawren Harris, Afternoon Sun, Lake Superior, 1924

Lawren Harris, Algoma Hill, 1920

Lawren Harris, Mount Robson from the North-East, 1929

Lawren Harris, Mount Thule, Bylot Island, 1930

While the Group of Seven was busy celebrating the pristine natural glory of their homeland, the majority of Llyn Foulkes' art focuses on its demise and destruction. There is no doubt we are in a different era. The works pictured below do not depict Los Angeles as a burning valley of trash, but they are distinctly barren and dead.