Bob was born in Racine, Wisconsin in 1930. Early on, his elder sister Carol introduced him to jazz music and guided his interest in art. In high school he studied with artists Sylvester Jerry, and George Frederickson at the Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, and Helen Sawyer at Washington Park High School. Meanwhile, he worked as a “ghost” artist on the “Big Little Books” published by Western Printing. Bob enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where, in 1955, he and his wife Nancy obtained Masters Degrees in Fine Arts. John Wilde, James Watrous, Dean Meeker, Alfred Sessler, and Santos Zingale were among his influential professors.
Bob served as professor of printmaking, painting and drawing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for 35 years, eventually heading the UWM Graphics Department. Many students remember his dedication to teaching. During his tenure, he received grants to study monoprints and photo silkscreen techniques, and to develop innovations in teaching. Bob received Boston Printmakers awards (1958, 1960, and 1968), a Wisconsin Arts Board Grant in 1979, and a Governor’s Award Print Commission in 1983 to create a serigraph celebrating Wisconsin-born artist Georgia O’Keeffe. In 1980 he was selected to deliver the Fromkin lecture on FDR, W.P.A and Wisconsin Art during the Great Depression.
His family joined him for his two sabbaticals in Europe, one to study plate lithography at the Curwen Press in London, the other at Atelier Desjobert in Paris. Bob's family appreciated and learned from his openness and steadiness, and a philosophy similar to what Tolstoy expressed: "Beauty will save the world." When Rand grew organic produce in Italy, Bob was often seen sketching at the edge of the garden. When Claire worked with Nepalese women artists, Bob produced a documentary film, "Colors of Change," that captured vividly the colors of saris, offerings of fruits and flowers, and the women’s own stories.
Known as a “risk taker” with regard to his versatility in subject matter and technique, his art moved fluidly between figure drawings, seascapes, and landscapes. He tried all media, from small detailed silverpoints to oil paintings and very large charcoal drawings. He is celebrated for his series of serigraphs called “The Seasons,” reflecting the changing landscapes of Wisconsin. Treasured by his family are Bob's numerous sketchbooks, in which he engaged with all that was before him at the moment, be it a horseshoe crab, an oriole, the pattern in water, or a punk rocker on a London street. Having spent many summers on the Cape, and then retiring to East Orleans, his work often reflected the sea, beaches, and clouds, and included a series on lifeguards, his “observers of the world.” He also loved to depict the family cottage in northern Wisconsin, a place of reverie and happiness.
An exhibition of the works of Edgar Degas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1972 inspired him deeply, and became the impetus for his exploration of monoprinting. Other revered artists included Monet, Emile Nolde, and Edward Hopper. In the words of Bruce Pepich, director of the Racine Art Museum (RAM), “Picking up on an earlier interest, developing a new technical approach and re-investing parts of the world around him are all factors that have made the work of Robert Burkert meaningful to us all.” A major collection of Bob’s work is being established at RAM.
Bob was inquisitive with whomever he met, and a storyteller like his mother, Ann. When opening a fruitful line of thought he would remark, "I have a sneaky feeling that….” His interests were broad. He loved swimming and tennis, hunting for mushrooms in the Wisconsin woods and observing hummingbirds. He had great fondness for the family’s pet Welsh Terriers. A particular hero was Lawrence ofArabia. He was engaged with issues of Peace and Justice, and with the political issues of the day.
He will be remembered by friends and family, including his grandsons, Francesco and Roberto, as a warm, humorous, curious, concerned and caring man who added considerably to the beauty of the world.
His work is represented in many institutions, including the Racine Art Museum, Chazen Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery, London, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, Camden Arts Center, London, the Denver Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. His work is reproduced in several publications including "A Century of American Printmaking 1880-1980" by James Watrous, "American Prints and Printmakers" by Una Johnson, "The Art of the Print," by Fritz Eichenberg, "The Complete Printmaker" by Clare Roman and John Ross, and "The Craft of Master Drawings", by James Watrous.
The family wishes to thank members of the VNA Hospice team and dear friends who gave their kind support. Burial will be in Mound Cemetery, Racine, Wisconsin followed by a small gathering of friends and family.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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