The Center’s exhibition, Life Cycles: The Charles E. Burchfield Collection recently completed a national tour to eight museums. After the Center lent Life Cycles to the Valparaiso University Museum of Art in Valparaiso, Indiana, The American Federation of Arts circulated 71 of our Burchfield masterworks in a trip that reached far across the U.S. Life Cycles traveled to theEversonMuseum inSyracuse,New York; The Art Museum atFloridaInternationalUniversity inMiami,Florida; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts inMontgomery,Alabama;JoslynArt Museum inOmaha,Nebraska;DelawareArt Museum inWilmington,Delaware; Walter Anderson Museum of Art inOcean Springs,Mississippi; and The Queens Museum of Art inFlushing,New York. Nancy Weekly, Head of Collections and Programs and Charles Cary Rumsey Curator, lectured at five of the presenting museums. Through this program the Center was able to serve audiences who ranged from dedicated Burchfield fans to excited newcomers to his work.
The end of the tour means the return of many of the public’s favorite works that have been unavailable for exhibition in Buffalofor two years. Some of these favorites, such as Wind-Blown Asters, Solitude, and Early Spring, reflect Burchfield’s recurring concern for seasonal subjects represented in metaphoric and metaphysical ways. Gallery 5, adjacent to Burchfield’s Studio, continued to show works that illustrate the artist’s unique materials and techniques for painting.