Hans Burkhardt

Hans Gustav Burkhardt (December 20, 1904 – April 22, 1994) was a Swiss American abstract expressionist.

In 1924 he emigrated from Basel, Switzerland to New York. He shared Arshile Gorky's studio from 1929 to 1936. When he moved to Los Angeles in 1937, Burkhardt represented the most significant bridge between New York and Los Angeles in that his paintings of the 1930s are part of the genesis of American abstract expressionism. He brought with him many of the nascent ideas of abstract and abstract expressionist painting that had been swirling among New York's artists, foremost among them, Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning. Working independently in Los Angeles, Burkhardt's experimental investigative approach allowed him to parallel, and in many instances anticipate, the development of modern and contemporary art in New York and Europe.

Burkhardt's ability to evoke compelling works of human empathy has led several of today's preeminent art historians and critics to regard many of his paintings to be among the major works of our time. for example, that the art he created in response to war – beginning with the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s and continuing through World War II, Vietnam and Desert Storm – represents a body of work unprecedented in the history of art. In his drawings, primarily through the use of the figure, has reflected the same richness of expressionism and symbolism for which he is known in his paintings.

Hans Burkhardt retired as a professor emeritus from California State University, Northridge after teaching there for ten years. Hans was a friend of the American Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Tobey, who resided in Basel, Switzerland. Hans would often visit with Tobey in Basel.

His unique role as an important American painter is affirmed by the constant interest and continuing reassessment afforded his work. In 1992, Burkhardt was honored as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters' Jimmy Ernst Award. Also in 1992, he established the Hans G. and Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation.

In 1974, Hans Burkhardt said:

Stuart Davis used to come there and Willem de Kooning. He was very quiet. He was a house painter; I was a furniture finisher, but Arshile Gorky always had faith in Willem de Kooning and me. He said, "These two people I think are going to make it."

Selected Major Collections

• British Museum
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles, California
• Kunsthalle
• Basel
• Whitney Museum of American Art
• Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
• Norton Simon Museum
• Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
• Ahmanson Collection
• Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
• California State University, Northridge
• Coca Cola Collection
• Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina
• Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• Detroit Institute of Arts
• Downey Art Museum, Downey, California
• Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
• Hirshhorn Collection, Washington, D.C.
• Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
• Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon
• Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
• Laguna Beach Museum of Art, California
• Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California
• Emily and Joe Lowe Gallery, University of Miami, Florida
• Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
• Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California
• Pasadena Art Museum, California
• Norton Simon Museum
• Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
• San Diego Museum of Art, California
• Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
• Security Pacific Bank Collection. Security Pacific Bank
• Skirball Museum, Los Angeles, California
• Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico. Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of Greensboro. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina

• From 1925 to 1928 he attended the Cooper Union School of the Arts.
• Wilson, William (May 19, 1992). "Honoring L.A.'s 'Secret' Art Pioneer: On the eve of receiving one of the art world's most prestigious awards, Hans Burkhardt looks back at decades of social conscience". LA Times. Retrieved 19 June 2013. 
• Oral history interview with Hans Burkhardt, 1974 Nov. 25 by Paul J. Karlstrom http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-hans-burkhardt-12117