A gathering of armchair art historians joined drawings curator Ann Prentice Wagner for an erudite introduction to watercolorist Charles Burchfield's Black Iron, a new acquisition of the Arkansas Arts Center, a gift from Hope Aldrich in honor of her father, John D. Rockefeller III.
The lecture preceded a reception Feb. 25 for arts center members that featured hors d'oeuvres and drinks and a special preview of the exhibit, now on view through May 8.
The Burchfield piece is part of a new joint exhibition being called "Industrial Beauty: Charles Burchfield's Black Iron and Dorothea Lange's America." (See Style, Page 1E)
The two exhibits are meant to reflect in different ways a view of middle America in the early- and mid-20th century. Burchfield once confessed, "'No one ever painted anything he didn't love, really,'" Wagner told the assembled, but "he himself did paint indictments of certain industrial problems" he saw.
-- Story and photos by
Bobby Ampezzan
High Profile on 03/06/2016