Ray Lowell Burggraf

Place: Ohio

Born: 1938

Biography:

Ray Burggraf is an artist, color theorist, and Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts at Florida State University. He was born in 1938 in Ohio, Morrow County Ohio, Mount Gilead Ohio. Burggraf's paintings are known for their visual excitation, pulsating patterns, vibrating after-images, weird illusionistic spaces, multifocal opticality, executed with knife-edge precision, and crisp elegance. His work is nature evocative, reaching back to the modernist landscape tradition of the Impressionists and of Neo-impressionists like Seurat, who immersed themselves in the color theories of Chevreul and Rood. Burggraf frequently calls his paintings 'color constructions' and uses acrylic paint and wood, sometimes Plexiglas and UV light. His work has been exhibited in the United States, Sweden, and Korea. 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, 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. 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.