The Sphinx and the Milky Way: Selections from the Journals of Charles Burchfield
Edited with text by Ben Estes. Introduction by Nancy Weekly.
Mystical and everyday reveries from the visionary American modernist
In the early years of the 20th century, Charles Burchfield painted mystic and visionary landscapes, and with some of his contemporaries, including Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe and Grant Wood, can be seen to have built the foundations of a particularly North American sensibility that critic Dave Hickey said "continues to evoke an unrepentant, gnostic vision of this vast, rolling, abandoned continent—America without Europe—America without Americans—a massive, alluring kingdom." For nearly his entire life, Burchfield also kept a journal. Over 54 years, he filled nearly 10,000 pages. To call this journal epic would be an understatement. A masterpiece whose bulk has remained unread, it is a handwritten tome that combines elements of the American nature journal with a dash of 19th-century spiritual autobiography. It is a record of a man who spent much of his life looking at and considering the sky. In this comparatively small selection pulled from the original 62 volumes, we find Burchfield writing about sitting in the grass with his wife to nap and watch the sunset. He writes about the elation he feels at seeing the first flowers in the spring. He writes about the rain, wind and sun. There’s the resentment of having a job; the depression that sneaks in as he gets older; sometimes, too, he writes about the state of human progress; and occasionally, thoughts about God. It is the tender record of a life devoted to the essences of earthly beauty. Best known for his romantic, often fantastic depictions of nature, watercolorist Charles Burchfield (1893–1967) developed a unique style of watercolor painting that reflected distinctly American subjects and his profound respect for nature.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Spectrum Culture
Pat Padua
The Sphinx and the Milky Way is just a handful of stars from one formidable galaxy of the mind.
Artnet
Katie White
Offers a refined and insightful selection of Burchfield’s journal entries, which together offer a vivid snapshot into this influential artist’s creative and personal world.
Rain Taxi Review of Books
Eric Bies
Those who have enjoyed such works as Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book or Kafka's Diaries will find another helping of time- and culture-collapsing manna in The Sphinx and the Milky Way.
Hyperallergic
Lauren Moya Ford
I’ve always found Burchfield’s glimmering landscapes mysterious, but his diaries offer an important insight: He painted through a prism that amplified nature’s quiet energies.
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Attention book lovers! The Song Cave is the Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Independent Publisher-in-Residence for the month of August. The Song Cave is dedicated to recovering a lost sensibility and creating a new one by publishing books of poetry, translations and art criticism and making art prints and other related materials. continue to blog
At last, we have released the new, abridged edition of Charles Burchfield’s collected journal entries, heroically condensed from more than 10,000 pages down to 200 by intrepid Song Cave publisher Ben Estes. “Burchfield’s Journals were a sanctuary for his thoughts,” Burchfield scholar Nancy Weekly writes in her Introduction. “His clear, detailed accounts of inspirational experiences and appreciation of nature’s resplendence are equivalent to his life’s art. He worried that people would not understand his work, writing: ‘The great difficulty of my whole career as a painter, is that what I love most (i.e. weather, change of seasons) not only holds little of interest for most people, but in many of its phases, is downright disagreeable, and not even to be mentioned! I love the approach of winter, the retreat of winter, the change from snow to rain & viceversa; the decay of vegetation, and the resurgence of plant-life in the spring—These to me are exciting and beautiful, an endless panorama of beauty and drama, but to them, the mass of humanity remains either bored & indifferent or actually hostile–’ He pushed on, undeterred. He had the courage to pursue his artistic and spiritual life on his own terms.” Featured image is Starlit Woods (1917–64). continue to blog
At last, we have released the new, abridged edition of Charles Burchfield’s collected journal entries, heroically condensed from more than 10,000 pages down to 200 by intrepid Song Cave publisher Ben Estes. “Burchfield’s Journals were a sanctuary for his thoughts,” Burchfield scholar Nancy Weekly writes in her Introduction. “His clear, detailed accounts of inspirational experiences and appreciation of nature’s resplendence are equivalent to his life’s art. He worried that people would not understand his work, writing: ‘The great difficulty of my whole career as a painter, is that what I love most (i.e. weather, change of seasons) not only holds little of interest for most people, but in many of its phases, is downright disagreeable, and not even to be mentioned! I love the approach of winter, the retreat of winter, the change from snow to rain & viceversa; the decay of vegetation, and the resurgence of plant-life in the spring—These to me are exciting and beautiful, an endless panorama of beauty and drama, but to them, the mass of humanity remains either bored & indifferent or actually hostile–’ He pushed on, undeterred. He had the courage to pursue his artistic and spiritual life on his own terms.” Featured image is Starlit Woods (1917–64). continue to blog
Attention book lovers! The Song Cave is the Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Independent Publisher-in-Residence for the month of August. The Song Cave is dedicated to recovering a lost sensibility and creating a new one by publishing books of poetry, translations and art criticism and making art prints and other related materials. continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 6 x 8.5 in. / 200 pgs / 34 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $28.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $41.95 GBP £25.00 ISBN: 9781734035148 PUBLISHER: The Song Cave AVAILABLE: 10/17/2023 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
The Sphinx and the Milky Way: Selections from the Journals of Charles Burchfield
Published by The Song Cave. Edited with text by Ben Estes. Introduction by Nancy Weekly.
Mystical and everyday reveries from the visionary American modernist
In the early years of the 20th century, Charles Burchfield painted mystic and visionary landscapes, and with some of his contemporaries, including Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe and Grant Wood, can be seen to have built the foundations of a particularly North American sensibility that critic Dave Hickey said "continues to evoke an unrepentant, gnostic vision of this vast, rolling, abandoned continent—America without Europe—America without Americans—a massive, alluring kingdom."
For nearly his entire life, Burchfield also kept a journal. Over 54 years, he filled nearly 10,000 pages. To call this journal epic would be an understatement. A masterpiece whose bulk has remained unread, it is a handwritten tome that combines elements of the American nature journal with a dash of 19th-century spiritual autobiography. It is a record of a man who spent much of his life looking at and considering the sky.
In this comparatively small selection pulled from the original 62 volumes, we find Burchfield writing about sitting in the grass with his wife to nap and watch the sunset. He writes about the elation he feels at seeing the first flowers in the spring. He writes about the rain, wind and sun. There’s the resentment of having a job; the depression that sneaks in as he gets older; sometimes, too, he writes about the state of human progress; and occasionally, thoughts about God. It is the tender record of a life devoted to the essences of earthly beauty.
Best known for his romantic, often fantastic depictions of nature, watercolorist Charles Burchfield (1893–1967) developed a unique style of watercolor painting that reflected distinctly American subjects and his profound respect for nature.
