The Paintings of Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest

The Burchfield Penney Art Center lent 11 works from the collection for this touring exhibition, organized by the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio. Burchfield's position in American art was notably influenced by historical and cultural changes beginning at the turn of the century, when he was born. Themes examining the diversity of Burchfield's creativity included "The Artist as Intimate Observer," "Memory and Fantasy," "The Regional Scene," and "Nature, The Cosmos and The Divine." The exhibition traced Burchfield's development through a comprehensive survey of his work, with comparative works by elder contemporaries and peers including Edward Hopper, Henry Keller, Georgia O'Keeffe, Grant Wood, and Andrew Wyeth.
The exhibition opened at the Columbus Museum of Art, where it was on view from March 23 until May 18, 1997. After the Burchfield Penney’s presentation, the show traveled to the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, from September 26, 1997 to January 25, 1998. The exhibition was co-curated by Nannette V. Maciejunes, senior curator at the Columbus Museum of Art, and Michael D. Hall, art critic and independent scholar on Great Lakes regionalism. It was supported by the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation. The presentation in Buffalo was made possible by a generous grant by the Vogt Family Foundation.