Artist to Know: Lilian Thomas Burwell - Beyond the Canvas
Lilian Thomas Burwell is an African American painter, sculptor and educator who creates artwork with swirled lines and colors and is known for her 3-dimensional wall art that morphs canvas over carved wood and acrylic into shapes that channel and funnel color and dimension. At 97 years old, Burwell’s artist career spans an awe-inspiring 50 years, creating a legacy of abstract expressionist art that transcends space and tradition.
What I love the most about Burwell's work is the sense of flow in her work. There is a progression of color that reminds me of organic structures such as plants and birds which are among my most favorite themes.
Images: Untitled (1983) acrylic on canvas, 72 x 44.25 in. (182.9 x 112.4 cm.); Leaflight (1983) acrylic on linen, 48 x 54 in. (121.9 x 137.2 cm.); Big Blue (1974) acrylic on canvas, 60.25 x 54 in. (153 x 137.2 cm.); Arctic Flow (1983) acrylic on linen, 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm.).
But there is also an abstraction in her work which gives the viewer space to interpret her artwork with their own emotional response. And there is a effortlessness and lightness that her work evokes that give me a sense of piece while drawing me in to look deeper into the detail of each image and sculpture.
Images: Skybound (1984) sculpture, acrylic on canvas over wood, 65 x 65 in. (165.1 x 165.1 cm.); Montagne (2012) paintings, sculpture, oil on canvas over wood, sheet acrylic, 28 x 44 x 7 in. (71.1 x 111.8 x 17.8 cm.); Interconnection (1992) paintings, acrylic on canvas over carved wood, 37 x 45.75 x 5.5 in. (94 x 116.2 x 14 cm.); Winged Autumn (2007) oil on canvas over carved wood, Plexiglas, 23 x 46 x 10 inches, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Courtesy of the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. 2011.06.001. Gift of Lilian Thomas Burwell. © Lilian Thomas Burwell. Photo: E. G. Schempf.
Burwell was born in 1927 in Washington DC and her father worked as a photographer and her mother worked as an artist and both her parents taught art. She graduated from the Pratt Institute in 1946, earning a BA from DC Teachers College and an MFA in 1975 from Catholic University.
In the 1960s, Burwell studied abstract expressionism with famed artist Benjamin Abramowitz. She was friends with Alma Thomas and Felrath Hines among other African American artists who were developing their techniques over the 20th century.
“As an artist, I think I had to be trained not to be concerned about how other people reacted, but to know that the work that I was doing was important to me because it was allowing me to breathe.”
Lilian Thomas Burwell, Assateague Island, Md., circa 1965
Burwell's work has been exhibited in over 20 exhibits, including the Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Community Museum, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. In 1997, a 30 year retropective exhibition entitled From Painting to Painting as Sculpture: the Journey of Lilian Thomas Burwell was hosted by Hampton University Museum.
burwellstudios.com