Listening to the Trees: Burchfield Masterworks from the Spiro Family Collection

A remarkable private collection of works by Charles E. Burchfield was presented in public for the first time. Amassed over decades, the Spiro Family Collection reflects a shared interest in Burchfield’s appreciation for nature’s beauty and awe-inspiring qualities. His reverence f manifests itself in unspoiled vistas, as in the painting Late Winter Dawn (1956-65), featuring a majestic evergreen with “tree spirit” eyes peering from between its branches, while it connects thawing earth with a star-studded sky. Bee Hepaticas (c. 1966) dramatizes the artist’s favorite flowers, which connote familial love and devotion. Here, in a golden aperture, spring’s first delicate, pastel blossoms emerge from a thick carpet of leaves and winter retreats into a black abyss beyond a stand of birch trees. Paintings and drawings from all stages in Burchfield’s life offered a full perspective on the artist’s imagination.