(Souls Ascending)

Hans Burkhardt

A major feature in the work of Hans Burkhardt is his desire to untangle the threads of war and grief, whether in the portrayal of battles or of funereal themes, and the genre of Abstract Expressionism was the tool he wielded. The Spanish Civil War, World War II, and other major skirmishes of his time became moments to be studied and puzzled out on his blocks and canvases.

Though he was a keen figurative artist, in his blockprints addressing these subjects his figures became more suggestive than literal, as with “Souls Ascending.” An abstracted collection of limbs and faces rises above the steeple of a church with a pair of heavenly gates just beyond. Whether he intends to suspend them in purgatory or to suggest that the chaos is moving toward a peaceful resolution is unclear.