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Emerson Burkhart 1906-196 American Oil Acrylic

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Emerson Burkhart 1906-196 American Oil Acrylic
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Oil and acrylic on paper, newly framed. Featuring a pair of shoes. Signed and manner of Emerson Burkhart (1906-1969, American) in pencil. 20 x 28 cm (8 x 11 inches). Emerson Burkhart was born near Kalida, Ohio in 1905. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1927, studied at the Art Student's League in New York City and subsequently travelled to Provincetown, Massachusetts where he took instruction from Charles Hawthorne. In 1931 he returned to the Midwest and taught at the Columbus, Ohio School of Art. He was an early member of the Ohio Art League. Burkhart was primarily an American Scene painter, although he painted in impressionist, post-impressionist and realist styles at different points in his career. Among his many subjects, he documented African-American life in Columbus that recalls the canvases of Ivan Le Lorraine Albright. Additionally, he created paintings depicting his disdain for wretched excess and our evolution to a disposable society. Burkhart is also well known for his street scenes. He received two WPA mural commissions, one at Stillman Hall on the campus of Ohio State University, and the now infamous mural painted above the auditorium of Central High School in Columbus, Ohio. Just several years after the mural's completion, the school principal had the mural whitewashed as it was too 'risqué' and inappropriate for young minds. It was only sixty-five years later that the mural was restored and given a new home at the Columbus Convention Center. Burkhart continued to paint prolifically throughout the 1960's until he suffered a stroke and passed away in November 1969 at his home in Columbus, Ohio.