“Have A Beer” with Painter Tom Burckhardt ’86
Hyperallergic’s “Beer with a Painter” series features casual conversations on the practices of painters.
“Although best known for his abstract paintings, Burckhardt has also created walk-in installations, plein-air paintings in Maine (where he spends his summers), and intimate collage paintings on found book pages.”
—Hyperallergic
Growing up in New York City with artist parents, Tom Burckhardt viewed artmaking as a normal activity and says his dad’s “‘lowfalutin’ style of aesthetics” was a model for him.
At Purchase, he appreciated the “fresh voice” of Nancy Davidson, Professor Emerita of Art+Design, and found a class in existentialism as particularly influential. “I picked up on the absurdity, rather than the nihilism.”
Read about his early work, his effort to “taint” abstraction, the references to Rorschach tests, and the “found text” that appears in his plein-air road sign paintings.
Beer With a Painter: Tom Burckhardt
“Paintings can show their humanity—with decisions made, changed, and new ones layered on top. I like the gesture of not knowing, not being overconfident or prideful. My process is apparent, so that, hopefully, if you look at the paintings, you relate to me, as another person decoding and figuring things out.”
—Tom Burckhardt
