“The issues are really about trust and being more connected to a message and a larger circle. The conversation is always there if you listen.”- Bruce Burstert
Kansas City mostly knows Bruce Burstert as an Oriental Rug Dealer and Interior Designer through his 20-year operation, Smith and Burstert Antiques that closed in 2007. More than that, he is an artist, singer, performance artist, and much more. Born in Marceline Missouri, growing up in the 1960’s, Burstert observed major historical events: including President Kennedy’s assassination, the Beatles coming to America, and Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Because of those historical happenings, Burstert believes he “caught the resurgence of that time and people fighting for civil rights,” along with growing up in Missouri and seeing all the visual elements that the Midwest has to offer. Burstert embodies the passionate components of America and a region that he identifies strongly with.
History has been a continual element in his life, Burstert says, “I’m a researcher about material. I like understanding who influenced who, what effects artists, their circumstances and what drives them…that informs me about traditions.” Tradition, is an important constituent in Burstert’s research and art. He describes his interests to involve culture, sacrifice, ceremony and how all of those have affected and driven artists and cultures. These interests can be seen in the series, Buffalo Dance, at The Todd Weiner Gallery.
Always loving the American Southwest, particularly because of its convergent cultures, Burstert has painted this area for 25 years. Two years ago he started to do cultural and Native American studies, along with studying cultural icons that came to the west years ago such as Georgia O’Keeffe, and many other painters and musicians that felt the Southwest was the true American culture. Taos Pueblo New Mexico has been painted many times, and Burstert believes this informed his education, by knowing who was affected by going to that place. Burstert states, “The environment helped the reduction of the work and development. Those who toured the Southwest are the best artists in America”. Though his passion for the Southwest is evident he also believes the Midwest is the birthplace of the American genre, and that there are a lot of Midwestern artists that are unsung heroes.
“Local heroes include many. If there was no George Caleb Bingham, we wouldn’t have Thomas Hart Benton, without Benton, we wouldn’t have Pollock, and without Pollock we wouldn’t have Jim Leedy, our great unexplored treasure, and of course Nick Cave.”
With Bruce Burstert’s foundation in the Midwest and admiration for the Southwest, he creates the series, Buffalo Dance. This series reflects an authentic buffalo dance he witnessed in January of 2012. He describes the dance to contain about 50-75 dancers performing in the bitter cold and snow, while wearing buffalo skins and furs. The teaching and keeping of the traditions influenced him greatly along with, “the powerful sense of place, how many times this has been captured previously by all the American artists before me. Earlier artists such as George Catlin painted the buffalo dance to document Native American culture and its demise.” Two hundred years ago the buffalo dance was originally danced as a prayer to call the buffalo closer for the hunt, and now the dance is a call and prayer for their return.
Stylistically the series captures the intensity of the ceremony described by Burstert, through the grand size of the canvases, bold color palette, and the piercing gaze of the subjects. The materials are made up of crayon, oil stick, natural oil pigments, spray paint, and collage elements such as feathers, hide, and beads. The use of yellows, reds, and browns provide the viewer with a connection to the bestial, animalistic, and savage aspects of the work. The monumentality of the pieces confronts the onlooker with an eye level gaze into the subjects’, the buffalo. Although a spectator, one senses a connection, and feels among the herd, sensing and mirroring the strength and power, in these subjects faces. The panic of the extermination of these beasts registers powerfully across each work. The series also emanates the feeling of joy and camaraderie in sacrifice through the dance’s tradition of honoring the spirits of animals and ancestors. Burstert effectively communicates the spiritual transcendence of this ceremony with his expressionist brushstrokes of bold color and use of collage elements. In the series, Buffalo Dance, Bruce Burstert brings back their spirits to gaze into the soul and mirror the universal fear of extinction.
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