Ray Burggraf

Ray L. Burggraf
Ray L. Burggraf at his studio in Tallahassee. In the background: Jungle Botanical, 2013.
Born
Ray Lowell Burggraf

(1938-07-26) July 26, 1938 (age 88)
Mt. Gilead, Ohio
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley, Cleveland Institute of Art, Ashland University.
Known forPainter
SpouseDr. Shirley P. Burggraf

Ray L. Burggraf (born 1938) is an artist, color theorist, and Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts at Florida State University. According to Roald Nasgaard, Burggraf's paintings exhibit "visual excitation...pulsating patterns, vibrating after-images, weird illusionistic spaces, multifocal opticality, executed with knife-edge precision...crisp and elegant and radiant with light." From a historical perspective, Burggraf's work is "nature evocative...reach[ing] back to the modernist landscape tradition of the Impressionists and of Neo-impressionists like Seurat, who, in the late-nineteenth century immersed themselves in the color theories of Chevreul and Rood" (Roald Nasgaard; former Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2006).

Using acrylic paint and wood—and sometimes Plexiglas and UV light—Burggraf frequently calls his paintings "color constructions", and they have been exhibited in the United States, Sweden, and Korea.

In 1981, Burggraf became a founding member of the non-profit 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, FL, and served as its first President. In 2004, Burggraf collaborated with two other Florida State University faculty members in the creation of an exhibition called, A Mysterious Clarity. The show debuted at the 621 Gallery, and by popular demand, evolved into a traveling exhibition. It has been viewed by the public in at least nine different museums and galleries, including the Brevard Art Museum of Melbourne, FL. Ray Burggraf's work demonstrates an extreme attention to technique, and has brought the role of environmentally-focused artwork to the forefront of debate among scholars (as reviewed by Kang, J.'s 2010 doctoral dissertation).

Life and career

Dragon Breath. Acrylic paint on wood. 77 x 78 inches (painting by Ray L. Burggraf, 2000)

Burggraf was born in Ohio in 1938. He obtained a BS at Ashland University in 1961; a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1968; and an MFA from The University of California at Berkeley in 1970.

Sailboat Disguise in the auditorium lobby of the Student Wellness Center at Florida State University. Acrylic paint on wood. 12' tall. (Painting by Ray L. Burggraf, 2012)

In a statement published in 2010, Burggraf wrote that his observations regarding the industrialization of his hometown farming community served as the impetus for his drive to become an artist. After graduating from Ashland University, he worked as a teacher between 1961 and 1965.

Eventually Burggraf decided to create and paint full-time, and quit his job in order to enroll in the Cleveland Institute of Art. As a student, Burggraf embraced traditional studio practice and was inspired by the German Bauhaus of the 1930s, as well as the Op Art movement of the 1960s. After graduation in 1968, Burggraf moved to CA and began graduate studies in the Fine Arts at the University of California at Berkeley.

Burggraf graduated from UC Berkeley in 1970, and immediately moved to Tallahassee, FL to join the faculty at Florida State University. While at FSU, he spent the next 37 years teaching, painting and sculpting. In 2007, Burggraf retired from teaching and turned his focus to studio work. Today,[when?] Burggraf continues to paint and sculpt at the Ray Burggraf Studio, and teaches visiting college students in his capacity as Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts at FSU.

About his work

"Jungle Arc" by Burggraf. Acrylic paint on wood. (1998)

The precise color gradations in Ray Burggraf's paintings are frequently mistaken as having been created by airbrush. In fact, Burggraf creates the distinctive coloring by brushing acrylic paints by hand, using a specialized technique of Burggraf's invention. According to Ray Burggraf: Retrospective, by Roald Naasgard (2006), Burggraf describes the process of creating his color constructions as "a combination of an act of meditation and physically exacting exercise." The paintwork must be completed quickly, and precisely, because acrylics can dry in minutes.

Burggraf's earliest professional works, beginning around 1970, were primarily constructed on canvas. In the early 1980s, Burggraf transitioned to hand-crafted clusters of wood panels for the foundation of his color constructions. The panels allow Burggraf to add the dimension of time: moments in a day or week, and changes in light as it reveals or obscures land or seascapes. Burggraf modulates colors, contrasts soft and sharp edges, and experiments with interlocking forms that bulge or recede. Each color construction is designed to evoke multiple times and places; Burggraf uses blocks of color to take viewers on a visual journey through conventional atmosphere, and then bring them to Earth with a horizontal line, or horizon line, that re-asserts the landscape.

One of the best examples of Burggraf's innovative technique may be The W, on display in 2008 at The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science as part of Smithsonian magazine's Museum Day presentation. While Burggraf's work is abstract, distinctive environmental themes are evident in his paintings and color constructions:

"My abstract paintings and color constructions highlight Earth's light and atmosphere. With glowing, jewel-like colors, smooth gradations emerge to evoke the grandeur of breathtaking vistas. Thoughts of oceans and the blazes of sunsets burst into creation from paintings on thin, sinuously-shaped panels of wood. They are a succession of linked landscape scenes remembered.''

Florida coastal environs and perhaps even beach-culture airbrush art are strongly reflected in my work. Precise color gradations are my signature; they are hand brushed rather than sprayed. Visual excitement flows like music and builds like progressive architectural morphology. Here, technique and theory work together to bring the language of modernist abstraction into the realm of contemporary landscape." (Ray Burggraf, 2010)

Public collections

In Search of Fresh Air. Banner by Ray L. Burggraf. 4 x 8 feet. Flag Art Festival, "Poetry of the Winds". Location: 2002 FIFA World Cup, Seoul, Korea.

Ray L. Burggraf's paintings have been acquired by the following:

Corporate collections

Curved Blues by Ray L. Burggraf. Acrylic paint on wood. Sun Viking, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Inc. Port of Miami, FL. Installation: Barbara Gillman Fine Art, Miami Beach, FL.

Companies that have acquired works by Ray L. Burggraf:

Solo exhibitions

Selected US & international exhibitions

Inferno by Ray Burggraf. 1978. Acrylic on canvas. 65" x 78"

A Mysterious Clarity: Ray L. Burggraf, Mark Messersmith & Lillian Garcia-Roig (Collaboration)

Papers and presentations

Ray L. Burggraf, assembling a recently completed color construction (2012). Photo courtesy of George Clark.