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A Grammar of Animacy

Title Wall for the exhibition, A Grammar of Animacy: Charles E. Burchfield & Mike Glier.
left: A Dream of Butterflies (1962) by Burchfield, center: The Evensong of Animals (2023) by Glier, right: When the Last Monarch Leaves New York This Painting Will Shake and Moan (2023) by Glier
left: The Red Woodpecker (1955) by Burchfield, right: Woodpecker Drumming (2021) by Glier
left: Sun and Snowstorm (1917) by Burchfield, right: Ice Splitting Light v.2 (2023) by Glier
left: Afternoon in the Grove (July 11, 1916) by Burchfield, right: Frost Settling (2023) by Glier
left: Fox Listening (2022) by Glier, right: Light Coming into a Woods (1954) by Burchfield
left: Bees Finding Pleasure v.2 (2023) by Glier, right: Sweet Pea Mood, 1917 (reworked 1954-55) by Burchfield
left: New Life, (first state 1919, destroyed, recreated 1963) by Burchfield, right: Bluebirds Flocking as Fall Approaches (2022) by Glier
left: Song of the Tree Cricket (1959-60) by Burchfield, right: Fawn Exhaling (2022) by Glier
left: Dawn of Spring (circa 1960s) by Burchfield, right: Trees Sharing Information v.6 (2022) by Glier
left: Flaming Orange Northern Sky at Sunset/V-4 (July 16, 1915) by Burchfield, center left: Storms Splitting Light (2024) by Glier, center right: Untitled (crow conventions, undated) by Burchfield, Ash Motif (2020) by Glier, right: A Light Breeze through the Last of the Leaves in November v. 9 (2023) by Glier
left: Still Life–Scrap Iron (1929) by Burchfield, right: The Ocean Depositing Trash (2023) by Glier
left: Rising Smoke (February 22, 1917) by Burchfield, right: There Is a Faint Odor of Petroleum and the Birds Are Singing, v.2 (2021) by Glier
left: Early Spring (1966-67) by Burchfield, right: Doe Inhaling Spring (2023) by Glier
left: Sunshine and Rain (1946-47) by Burchfield, right: Song Sparrow Singing in the Boston Public Garden (2020) by Glier

The exhibition, A Grammar of Animacy: Charles E. Burchfield and Mike Glier, was presented at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, November 7 though March 2, 2025.

A Grammar of Animacy: Charles E. Burchfield and Mike Glier is a part of an ongoing series exploring the connections between Burchfield and living artists. The Center invited Glier to the museum for a residency in 2021 to explore Burchfield’s art more deeply, and from that opportunity this exhibition evolved. Resident Burchfield Scholar Nancy Weekly and Glier curated the exhibition together to explore thematic connections through visual groupings as well as through conversation, which can be accessed in the exhibition catalog, available at https://shop.burchfieldpenney.org/collections/current-exhibition-catalogs/products/a-grammar-of-animacy-charles-e-burchfield-mike-glier

The digital version is available in the library of this website.

The title, A Grammar of Animacy, comes from a concept created by Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass. As a botanist and citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, she describes the linguistic attributes of the Potawatomi language as rich with verbal phrases rather than simple nouns to describe the ceaseless exchange between all living things. This parallels how Burchfield and Glier both use an abstract visual language, derived from plein-air observation, to describe an intimate, reciprocal relationship between themselves and their subject, nature.

Burchfield died fourteen years after Mike Glier was born, so they are generations apart, but they both engage a full range of the senses, improvising with color, motif, and repetition to evoke abstract representations of sound, smell, and touch to describe the dynamic, multisensory experience of perception. It is here, in the act of translating the sensory experience that nature provides, that the two artists model a kind of reciprocity between artist and subject that reflects a vision of the natural world as partner rather than resource for exploitation.

The Forests of Antarctica

Installation at The Forests of Antarctica, Lake George Projects for the Arts, Lake George NY. 2024. L to R: June 7, 2013: Lubec, ME, 55ºF; June 3, 2013: Lubec, ME, 59ºF; Dusk; The Forests of Antarctica #82
Title Wall, left: The Forests of Antarctica 470, v.1
L to R: Plaintive. Two Beat Whistle of a Chickadee; The Forests of Antarctica 161; Grass and Breeze; Good Day; Light Horizon Blue; Slanting Cold Rain.
L to R: Grass and Breeze; Good Day; Light Horizon Blue; Slanting Cold Rain.
L to R: August 22, 2012: Dusk, Long Lake, NY, 68ºF; Wind, clouds. Bruton, 7/20/17, 65º; Crying Beasts.
L to R: Wind, clouds. Bruton, 7/20/17, 65º; Crying Beasts; The Sound of Dogs Disturbed by My Passing.
L to R: There Is a Faint Odor of Petroleum and the Birds Are Singing, v.2; The Forests of Antarctica 589.

Williams College Permanent Installations

Lake Bascom, 2018, oil on linen, 110” x 151”
There Is a Faint Odor of Petroleum and the Birds Are Singing, 2020, oil on arches oil paper, 70"x49"
Waterbug, 2020, oil on arches oil paper, 66"x44.5"
L to R: Horns of Mint, 2020, oil on arches oil paper, 61.5"x44.5"; The Hearts of Cattle, 2020, oil on arches oil paper, 62"x44.5"
The Sound of Farm Dogs Disturbed by My Passing, 2020, oil on arches oil paper, 70"x49"