Ray L. Burggraf (born 1938) is an artist, color theorist, and Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts at Florida State University.Orlando Sentinel, Judges Have Extensive Art Backgrounds, March 6, 1988, () According to Roald Nasgaard, Burggraf's paintings exhibit "visual excitation...pulsating patterns, vibrating after-images, weird illusionistic spaces, multifocal opticality, executed with knife-edge precision...crisp and elegant and radiant with light." From a historical perspective, Burggraf's work is "nature evocative...reach[ing] back to the modernist landscape tradition of the Impressionists and of Neo-impressionists like Seurat, who, in the late-nineteenth century immersed themselves in the color theories of Chevreul and Rood" (Roald Nasgaard; former Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2006).Nasgaard, Roald, Ray Burggraf: Retrospective, Publisher: Florida State University Museum of Fine Art, Tallahassee, FL, January 1, 2006, ASIN: B005KDHE06
Using acrylic paint and wood—and sometimes Plexiglas and UV light—Burggraf frequently calls his paintings "color constructions",Broward College Alumni Network, Ray Burggraf - Wide Open Spaces: Paintings, Drawings, Color Constructions, Accessed March 2013, (http://alumni.broward.edu/event/id/131299/Ray-Burggraf---Wide-Open-Spaces-Paintings-Drawings-Color-Constructions.htm#)Valdosta State University News, Artists of Railroad Square: Multi-media Invitational Exhibition, February 8, 2012 (http://www.valdosta.edu/about/news/releases/2012/02/railroadsquare-020912.php) and they have been exhibited in the United States, Sweden, and Korea.Tallahassee Democrat, Best Bets: From Creepy Art to Zombie-Prom, Oct. 2011, (http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20111014/ENT/110140308/Best-bets-From-creepy-art-Zombie-Prom-)Tallahassee/Leon County Council on Arts & Culture, (http://www.cocanet.org/artistdirectory/painting-oilacrylic/10839217)2002 Flag Art Festival: Poetry of the Winds, FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan, Publisher: Department of World Cup Cultural Affairs, 2002; 295 pages (https://books.google.com/books/about/2002_Flag_Art_Festival.html?id=SnxNHQAACAAJ).SVAD News, SVAD Faculty, Art, Pg. 3, Fall 2002, Accessed March 2013, ()
In 1981, Burggraf became a founding member of the non-profit 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, FL, and served as its first President. In 2004, Burggraf collaborated with two other Florida State University faculty members in the creation of an exhibition called, A Mysterious Clarity. The show debuted at the 621 Gallery,621 Gallery, Archive, 2004, A Mysterious Clarity (http://www.621gallery.org/exhibitionsevents/archive/2004.html) Accessed March 2013. and by popular demand, evolved into a traveling exhibition. It has been viewed by the public in at least nine different museums and galleries, including the Brevard Art Museum of Melbourne, FL.Melbourne Arts and Entertainment News, Mysterious Clarity, Accessed March 2013, (http://www.americantowns.com/fl/melbourne/news/mysterious-clarity-116961)Brevard Cultural Alliance, (http://www.artsbrevard.org/calendar.html?task=view&vmode=e&viewid=16&eid=4280)"Tampa Bay Times", Opposites Naturally Attract, Jacobs, L., 2008 (http://www.tampabay.com/features/visualarts/opposites-naturally-attract/503784 )Art Department at Sam Houston State University, 2006, (http://www.shsu.edu/~gallery/pastexhibition.html) Ray Burggraf's work demonstrates an extreme attention to technique, and has brought the role of environmentally-focused artwork to the forefront of debate among scholars (as reviewed by Kang, J.'s 2010 doctoral dissertation).Kang, J., 2010 Dissertation, Florida State University, "How Four North Florida Artists Address Environmental Issues In Their Art with Implications for Art Education" (http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2752&context=etd)
Life and career Burggraf was born in Ohio in 1938. He obtained a BS at Ashland University in 1961; a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1968; and an MFA from The University of California at Berkeley in 1970.Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Ray Burggraf: March 4 - April 9, 2011, (http://www.rauschenberggallery.com/2011/03/ray-burggraf/)
In a statement published in 2010, Burggraf wrote that his observations regarding the industrialization of his hometown farming community served as the impetus for his drive to become an artist.Ray Burggraf Studio press, 2010, (http://rayburggraf.com/rayburggraf.com/Statement_Bio.html) After graduating from Ashland University, he worked as a teacher between 1961 and 1965.
Eventually Burggraf decided to create and paint full-time, and quit his job in order to enroll in the Cleveland Institute of Art. As a student, Burggraf embraced traditional studio practice and was inspired by the German Bauhaus of the 1930s, as well as the Op Art movement of the 1960s. After graduation in 1968, Burggraf moved to CA and began graduate studies in the Fine Arts at the University of California at Berkeley.
Burggraf graduated from UC Berkeley in 1970, and immediately moved to Tallahassee, FL to join the faculty at Florida State University. While at FSU, he spent the next 37 years teaching, painting and sculpting. In 2007, Burggraf retired from teaching and turned his focus to studio work. Today, Burggraf continues to paint and sculpt at the Ray Burggraf Studio, and teaches visiting college students in his capacity as Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts at FSU.FSU Department of Art, News and Opportunities, FSU Art Students Visit Ray Burggraf's Studio,(http://news.art.fsu.edu/2012/09/fsu-art-students-visit-ray-burggrafs-studio/)
About his work The precise color gradations in Ray Burggraf's paintings are frequently mistaken as having been created by airbrush. In fact, Burggraf creates the distinctive coloring by brushing acrylic paints by hand,The Auburn Plainsman, Visiting artists lecture on different artistic styles, Du Fossat, Chris; Feb. 3, 2000; (http://www.auburn.edu/student_info/plainsman/archives/020300/020300ivisiting.html) using a specialized technique of Burggraf's invention. According to Ray Burggraf: Retrospective, by Roald Naasgard (2006), Burggraf describes the process of creating his color constructions as "a combination of an act of meditation and physically exacting exercise." The paintwork must be completed quickly, and precisely, because acrylics can dry in minutes.
Burggraf's earliest professional works, beginning around 1970, were primarily constructed on canvas. In the early 1980s, Burggraf transitioned to hand-crafted clusters of wood panels for the foundation of his color constructions. The panels allow Burggraf to add the dimension of time: moments in a day or week, and changes in light as it reveals or obscures land or seascapes. Burggraf modulates colors, contrasts soft and sharp edges, and experiments with interlocking forms that bulge or recede. Each color construction is designed to evoke multiple times and places; Burggraf uses blocks of color to take viewers on a visual journey through conventional atmosphere, and then bring them to Earth with a horizontal line, or horizon line, that re-asserts the landscape.
One of the best examples of Burggraf's innovative technique may be The W, on display in 2008 at The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science as part of Smithsonian magazine's Museum Day presentation.Exhibits, Tallahassee Democrat, (Tallahassee.com), Sep 25, 2008, (http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20080926/ENT/809260317/Exhibits) While Burggraf's work is abstract, distinctive environmental themes are evident in his paintings and color constructions:FSU Institute for Energy Systems, Economics, and Sustainability Newsletter, FSU Artists Care About the Environment: In the world and in the IESES lobby, November 2009, Accessed March 2013, (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs080/1102608159425/archive/1104082749610.html#LETTER.BLOCK13)
"My abstract paintings and color constructions highlight Earth's light and atmosphere. With glowing, jewel-like colors, smooth gradations emerge to evoke the grandeur of breathtaking vistas. Thoughts of oceans and the blazes of sunsets burst into creation from paintings on thin, sinuously-shaped panels of wood. They are a succession of linked landscape scenes remembered.''
Florida coastal environs and perhaps even beach-culture airbrush art are strongly reflected in my work. Precise color gradations are my signature; they are hand brushed rather than sprayed. Visual excitement flows like music and builds like progressive architectural morphology. Here, technique and theory work together to bring the language of modernist abstraction into the realm of contemporary landscape." (Ray Burggraf, 2010)
Public collections Ray L. Burggraf's paintings have been acquired by the following:
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NCMint Museum - Collection Database - Ray L. Burggraf, (http://www.mintmuseum.org/resources/collection-database/creator-detail/500215/Ray-L-Burggraf) Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL The University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL Vanderbilt University Theological Seminary, TN Dekalb College, Clarkston, GA Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Department of State Florida State University, Psychology Department Florida State University, Devoe Center Broward Community College, South Campus, Three Locations Florida State University, Student Wellness Center, 2012Florida Council on Arts and Culture, Accessed March 2013 National Public Art Project: Florida International University, Earnest R. Graham University Center, Three-Part Installation National Public Art Project: Florida State University, Student Life Center, One Painting, New Psychology Building, Two Locations National Public Art Project: Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Training Area, Tallahassee, Complex
Corporate collections
Companies that have acquired works by Ray L. Burggraf:
Alabama Power Company ATT Corporate Art Program, Piscataway, NJ Barnett Bank, Jacksonville, FL Continental Corporation, Miami, FL Eastman Pharmaceuticals, A Division of Eastman Kodak, Malvern, PA Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Inc., Sun Viking Cruise Ship, Port of Miami, FL The Southern Bell Tower Collection, Jacksonville, FL William R. Hough & Co., St. Petersburg, FL
Solo exhibitions
Ray Burggraf, Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Edison State College, Fort Myers, FL, March 2011, University / regional show.The Examiner, Burggraf exhibition at Bob Rauschenberg Gallery geometrically colorful, Accessed March 2013, (http://article.wn.com/view/2011/02/27/Burggraf_exhibition_at_Bob_Rauschenberg_Gallery_geometricall/#/related_news)Naples News, Visual arts: Now hanging in local galleries and museums , March 9, 2011. Accessed March 2013, (http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/mar/09/visual-arts-now-hanging-local-galleries-and-museum/) Ray Burggraf Painting, Broward Community College, South Campus, Pembroke Pines, FL, November 2010, University / local show.Broward College Alumni Network, Ray Burggraf - Wide Open Spaces: Paintings, Drawings, Color Constructions (http://alumni.broward.edu/event/id/131299/Ray-Burggraf---Wide-Open-Spaces-Paintings-Drawings-Color-Constructions.htm#) Orbits and Horizons, Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day presentation, Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, Tallahassee, FL, September 2008, Museum / regional.The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science; In Association with the Smithsonian Institution (Press Release), Be Dazzled by the Brogan's Newest Exhibits, Accessed March 2013, (http://www.thebrogan.org/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=101)