CHARLES BURDICK (1924 – 2016)
Charles Burdick was born in Rhode Island, where he enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design after returning with a purple heart from the Pacific during WWII. At the Art Students League of New York his instructors included Edwin Dickinson, Will Barnett and Reginald Marsh.
After the first of many travels abroad, Charles moved his family from New York to Cape Cod, where he established his art gallery in 1967 and was a founder of the Wellfleet art Gallery Association.
Throughout his career Charles won awards for drawing and painting in watercolor, oil, and acrylic. He began selling his work at the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit in Greenwich Village and continued to sell there and at outdoor art festivals in New England, Florida and Illinois. His work has been on display at many galleries and museums in Europe, Canada, and the United States, including The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Philadelphia Museum, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, the Society of American Artists and the Smithsonian Institute. The last of his many solo shows was at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in October of 2007 and at the Wellfleet Library Meeting Room in October of 2012.
His legacy lives on in his work, created during a lifetime devoted to art.
“Burdick is a succulent draftsman…his pen sweeps swiftly and luxuriously through mythological scenes of horses, bulls and women. Animal and man prance on delicately tapered feet in an Elysian Field of penmanship.” ( Art News )
“Probably no one has ever drawn horses and bulls better than Burdick… He draws from memory and can twist his animal torsos around any way he chooses.” ( Art Voices )
“Curvaceous nudes and horses reflect this artist’s Baroque influence, out of Reginald Marsh and Jon Corbino. He draws and paints… with sensual and anatomical skill.” ( Herald Tribune )