Discipline: Visual Art – painting

Paul Burlin

Discipline: Visual Art – painting
MacDowell Fellowships: 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957
Paul Burlin (1886–1969) was a noted painter whose career spanned eight decades. From 1900 to 1912 he attended the National Academy of Art as well as the Art Student’s League and worked as an illustrator for Delineator in New York. He was the youngest artist to be invited to show in the landmark Armory Show of 1913 alongside prominent impressionists; that same year, he moved to Santa Fe, NM, becoming the first modernist painter to reside and work there. He admired the Pueblo Indians, incorporating the geometric forms and colors of primitive art in his work as it moved from representational to experimental and abstract. In 1921, he relocated to France, where he was influenced by the avant-garde art scene and perfected his technique. He lived and exhibited all over Europe and North Africa before returning to New York. In the late 1940s, Burlin's work moved further into the abstract expressionist mode although he always retained elements of southwestern spirituality. In the early 1950s, Burlin taught at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, amid a little known hot-bed of modernist invention and innovation. After his death, Burlin was honored with retrospectives at MoMA and the Pasadena Art Museum.

Studios

Alexander

Paul Burlin worked in the Alexander studio.

Originally designed to be a visual art gallery, this facility was built in memory of the late John White Alexander (1856-1915) and funded by Elizabeth Alexander and their son James. John White Alexander was highly regarded as a portrait painter and, in the early part of the 20th century, served…

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