SKU: 54820697662

Hans Burkhardt oil on panel entitled Dancing flames

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Hans Burkhardt oil on panel entitled Dancing flamesHans Burkhardt oil on panel entitled Dancing flames From the collection of Dr. Aurelio de la Vega, the world renowned Cuban composer, conductor, and music professor, who taught at Cal State Northridge (CSUN) for over three decades, during which time he was Distinguished Professor of Music and Director of the Electronic Music Studio. This gorgeous work on panel was acquired around the mid 1990's, by the present owner. It is unframed, and in very good

Hans Burkhardt oil on panel entitled Dancing flames

From the collection of Dr. Aurelio de la Vega, the world renowned Cuban composer, conductor, and music professor, who taught at Cal State Northridge (CSUN) for over three decades, during which time he was Distinguished Professor of Music and Director of the Electronic Music Studio.

This gorgeous work on panel was acquired around the mid 1990's, by the present owner. It is unframed, and in very good condition.

It is signed, dedicated and dated 1993. This work measures 9.5 × 14.25" (24.1 × 36.2 cm).

Hans Burkhardt (1904 – 1994) was a Swiss-American artist who immigrated to New York in 1924. He studied at Cooper Union and then at Grand Central School, where he met Arshile Gorky, a pivotal artist in the transition from Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism. Burkhardt quickly became Gorky’s colleague and trusted friend. They even collaborated on several works. From 1928 to 1937, Burkhardt shared Gorky’s studio. Willem de Kooning, another Gorky disciple, was a frequent guest.

Moving to Los Angeles in late 1937, Burkhardt served as a link between East and West Coast progressive art. Anticipating the work of his contemporaries in New York and Europe, he began to forge his signature style. From the 1930s through his final work in 1993, Burkhardt’s art presents a poignant testament to the human experience. His output includes monumental anti-war work (“the fiercer ones”) as well as lyrical expressions of hope (“the happy ones”). His anti-war work responded to the Spanish Civil War, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and conflicts in Central America and Iraq. It is for good reason that Eugene Anderson wrote that Burkhardt was “Goya’s spiritual heir.” Explaining his choice of subjects, Burkhardt simply stated, “I paint the way I live.” 
In the 1940s Burkhardt met and exhibited with a group of transplanted Surrealists in Los Angeles, including Man Ray, Knud Merrild, and Eugene Berman. Describing his work of this time, he wrote, “(my) paintings evolve out of emotions and ideas” — a process not unlike the Surrealist’s conception of the genesis of creative thought.

In 1950, while Painterly and Color Field Abstract Expressionism held sway in New York, Burkhardt worked in isolation in Los Angeles and Mexico, painting rich abstract work of extraordinary emotional range. 

During the 60s, as the Los Angeles art world was seduced by California Light and Space, Hard Edge, Minimalism, and Pop Art, Burkhardt continued to paint independent works of great emotional power. His masterpiece, My Lai, includes human skulls embedded into a dark scorched earth surface reminiscent of Baroque altarpieces. This work predates work by such artists as Anselm Kiefer by twenty years. Suggesting a legacy for the artist, Donald Kuspit wrote that “Burkhardt is a master — indeed the inventor — of the abstract memento mori.”

During the 70s, Burkhardt created a series of paintings entitled “Graffiti,” in which he responded to socio-political upheaval in his Swiss homeland. These Neo-Expressionist works anticipated the street art of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Hans Burkhardt is known for his meticulously structured and balanced paintings that blur the distinction between abstraction and representation. Burkhardt continually returned to depictions of war through abstract paintings dated from as early as World War II and as recently as the Gulf War in the early 1990s. A talented draughtsman and former student of Arshile Gorky, Burkhardt thought painting must have careful drawing as its basis. He always sketched in pencil, pastels, or ink before building up his heavily layered, fleshy surfaces in oil.

In 1992, Burkhardt was honored in New York by the American Academy of Art for his lifetime achievement. He died in Los Angeles in 1994.

Just some of his solo shows and museums with this American Master's work in their permanent collections:

1939 Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles
1945 Los Angeles County Museum of Art: “Hans Burkhardt”
1951 Museo de Bellas Artes, Guadalajara, Mexico: "Exhibicion de Pinturas Modernas" 
1953 Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
1957 Pasadena Art Museum, California: "Ten Year Retrospective"
1962 Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco: "Thirty Year Retrospective"

1964 Palm Springs Art Museum
1968 San Diego Museum of Art: "Vietnam Paintings"
1972 Long Beach Museum of Art, California: "Retrospective 1950 – 1972" 
1973 California State University, Northridge: "A Retrospective Exhibition"
1977 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California: "Linocuts and Pastels" 
1978 Laguna Beach Museum of Art, California: "Mark Tobey / Hans Burkhardt"
1982 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles: "Arshile Gorky and Hans Burkhardt"
1983 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles: "Hans Burkhardt: Basel Graffiti Series"
1984 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles: "Pastels: 50 Years of Figurative Expressionism"
1985 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles: "Hans Burkhardt: The War Paintings"
1990 Portland Art Museum, Oregon: "Mark Tobey and Hans Burkhardt"
1991 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles: "Hans Burkhardt: Desert Storms" 
1992 American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York: "Hans Burkhardt"
2008 California State University Northridge: "Hans Burkhardt"
2017 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in conjunction with the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA: "Hans Burkhardt in Mexico"

Hans Burkhardt’s works have in recent years increasingly been exhibited in museum exhibitions nationally and internationally. He continues to attract significant critical attention from some of the leading art historians such as Peter Selz and Donald Kuspit. Burkhardt’s works are included in the collections of such major museums as:

The British Museum, London
Victoria and Albert Museum, London 
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Whitney Museum, New York
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC
The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Portland Art Museum, Portland
Harvard Art Museum, Boston
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Lowe Art Museum, Miami, Florida, F
ine Arts Museum of San Francisco
Palace of the Legion Honor, San Francisco
Cal State University, Northridge (CSUN)
USC Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles
The Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena
Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

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4.8 ★★★★★
Based on 19 reviews
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K
Verified Purchase
Kindle Customer
Houston, US
★★★★★ 5
Beautiful!
Format: Kindle
I heard about this book in a conversation at a craft party and ordered it the same night. I was not disappointed. I fell in love with Marcellus and Tova and their delightful relationship, and with all the ancillary characters that made this book so special. The ending was so very sweet and satisfying as well. Great 1st book!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2026
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Carolyn Ellis
Omaha, US
★★★★★ 5
It was as good as I'd hoped.
Format: Kindle
Marcellus McSquiddles, the giant Pacific Octopus who has lived at the Sowell Bay Aquarium for going on four years, is often exasperated with the humans who stare at him all day. But there is one human who is different. She speaks to him and more importantly, she keeps his nocturnal escapes from his tank, a secret. Tova is a gentle woman, a widower and still dealing with the loss of her son, more than thirty years ago. When someone new strolls into town, Cameron Cassmore, looking for his dead beat father, he and Tova's lives will become inextricably linked, if they're not already. And Marcellus sees all of this and does his best to assist, where he can, since for the most part, he notices that haumans can be rather dull. But though, sometimes, especially in the case of Tova, there a a few who are remarkably bright. This was a sweet, genuine, heartfelt and beautifully written, fun read. Van Pelt has created a delightfully jaded and long-suffering, sighing character in the form of Marcellus and he and Tova's story is told in such a unique and imaginative way. I'd been meaning to read this for so long and I'm so glad I finally did.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2026
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T. Sparks
Port Orchard, US
★★★★★ 5
A remarkable story
Format: Hardcover
What a wonderful surprise this was! I thought Remarkably Bright Creatures was a story about a woman and an octopus, but it turned out to be so much more than that. This is Shelby Van Pelt’s first book, and I don’t think a debut has affected me like this since I read Hollow Kingdom, another story that unfolds through the eyes of an animal. The story has a bit of magical realism to it, in the sense that parts of it are told from the octopus’s point of view, but otherwise it’s simply a delightful tale about family and connections that had me ugly crying by the end of the book. In the first chapter we meet Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus on display in the Sowell Bay Aquarium near Puget Sound. Marcellus has been in captivity for 1,299 days, and based on his life expectancy of about four years, he believes he only has a handful of days left to live. His dreary days in a small glass enclosure are broken up by secret nighttime excursions, as Marcellus is extremely smart and has found a way out of his tank. Tova Sullivan is a seventy-year-old woman who has been working nights at the aquarium as a cleaning lady for the past two years. Tova knows how to remove the hundreds of fingerprints on the tank walls and can polish the floors to a brilliant shine. She’s also quite fond of the sea creatures she encounters each night, especially Marcellus, and the two have formed an unusual bond since Tova saved Marcellus one night after he escaped and became entangled in a bunch of electrical cords. Next, we meet Cameron Cassmore, a thirty-year-old man who is drifting through life with no real purpose. Cameron lives in California, and one day his aunt gives him a box of his estranged mother’s things. Inside the box he finds a photo and an old class ring, clues that could lead to the identity of his father, a man he never knew. Cameron hops on a plane to Washington state, convinced the man he thinks is his father—a rich real estate tycoon—will be so distraught over abandoning his son, he’ll shower Cam with money. At least that’s the plan. Finally, Ethan Mack is the owner of Sowell Bay’s Shop-Way, the local grocery store. Ethan has known Tova for years and secretly has a crush on her, but Tova is much too distant to notice his interest. When Cameron shows up at the Shop-Way looking for a job, Ethan directs him to his friend who manages the aquarium, which is how Cameron and Tova meet. Tying all these characters together is Marcellus, a remarkably bright octopus with a penchant for stealing and hoarding the treasures he finds after hours on the aquarium floor, and who just might be able to bring two people together who need each other—but don’t yet realize it. Van Pelt’s chapters alternate among all these characters and introduce a slew of side characters as well, each one vitally important to the story. At first, we don’t realize how each character is connected to the next, but slowly the author reveals her secrets until the stunned reader begins to understand the depth of these connections. Each character is given a detailed backstory that becomes very important to the plot. Tova’s story in particular was heart wrenching, as she has experienced quite a bit of loss in her life and finds herself mostly alone in her twilight years. Luckily she belongs to a group of women who call themselves the Knit-Wits, and the four of them meet weekly to eat, drink, gossip and support each other. Tova came to America from Sweden as a little girl, so the story is filled with details about growing up with her Swedish mother and father. Even the Dala horses her mother collected play a part in the story, and I found these little details added so much richness. At first I couldn’t figure out how Cameron fit it, but once he arrives in Sowell Bay and meets Ethan and Tova, his story takes on new meaning. Cameron meets a woman named Avery who also plays a vital part in filling in some of the missing pieces about Cameron’s father, and I loved the way the author gave even the most insignificant side characters meaning and purpose. Van Pelt infuses her story with so many emotional moments and themes. We see how the Knit-Wits are going through the aging process, as their numbers have dwindled over the last few years. Tova is facing being alone in her old age, with no children or husband to take care of her, and so she makes the rash decision to sell her beloved house and move into a retirement community. I don’t want to give too many details about Tova’s past and her losses, because I think it’s better to discover those revelations for yourself. Let’s just say that I felt Tova’s pain and wanted nothing more than for her to be happy. And Van Pelt includes so many funny moments in her story that kept the tone light, despite some of the more heavy themes. There’s an ongoing bit about Cameron’s lost luggage that was hysterically funny, and Tova inherits a stray cat at one point, which was a delightful side plot. I also loved the story about the t-shirt that Tova uses to clean Ethan’s kitchen—you’ll just have to read the book so you can experience the hilarity too! And of course, I can’t forget the star of the story, Marcellus the octopus. As the days tick by—each of his chapters starts with a marker (“Day 1,299 of my captivity”, etc)---the tension builds as Marcellus gets closer to his impending death (at least that’s what he thinks). Marcellus understands human nature more than most humans, and I loved the way he wisely intuits each character’s needs. Ultimately, this is a story about creatures—both human and animal—saving each other. The way Marcellus’s story plays out was absolutely perfect—heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. This is a very special book, and I’m so glad I was able to finally read it. Highly recommended!
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Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2024
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Kristie
Boise, US
★★★★★ 4
loved it!
Format: Kindle
Really enjoyed this book! My coworker begged me to read it for years but I didn't think I'd like it. I thought it would be a fantasy with talking creatures - if you're not into that, don't worry, it's not. Very good storyline that moved along quickly. Hallmark, feel-good book, but wasn't cheesy or overdone. Would definitely recommend (just like my coworker said)
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Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2026
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Verified Purchase
Lindsey Davis
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 5
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Format: Hardcover
emarkably Bright Creatures is one of those rare novels that effortlessly sneaks into your heart and makes itself at home. It centers on Tova Sullivan, a seventy‑year‑old widow quietly trying to fill the empty spaces left by loss, and Marcellus, a brilliantly observant giant Pacific octopus at the Sowell Bay Aquarium whose voice is as wise as it is wry. Their unlikely friendship is at once funny, tender, and deeply affecting, gently guiding the story through themes of grief, hope, aging, and connection. The book also weaves in Cameron, a young man adrift in life, and slowly threads all three characters’ paths together into a quietly powerful emotional journey. What I loved most was how the narrative balances genuine humour and surprising warmth with profound reflections on family, forgiveness, and new beginnings — all without ever feeling forced or overly sentimental. Shelby Van Pelt’s debut is beautifully written, full of subtle moments that stick with you long after the final page. Whether it’s Marcellus’s clever asides, Tova’s resilient heart, or the way the story reminds you that healing can come from the most unexpected places, this book is a joy to read. Rating: ★★★★★ — a truly special read I’ll remember for a long time.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2026

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