Address: Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 357 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036-2517

Contact: Jack Rutberg or Carl Fiacco
Tel (323) 938-5222, Fax (323) 938-0577
E-mail, jrutberg@jackrutbergfinearts.com

A major exhibition of paintings and drawings by Hans Burkhardt will be
presented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in the first solo exhibition in Los
Angeles since the artist's death in 1994.

Entitled HANS BURKHARDT: CASTING A SHADOW - SUNSHINE & NOIR, this exhibition
of more than 60 works will span the years since the late 1950s through the
1990s - the period when Los Angeles increasingly gained international
recognition as a significant center for contemporary art.
The exhibition at the Rutberg gallery will be presented in collaboration with
UCLA at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art, as part of a citywide tribute to L.A.
contemporary art, expanding upon the Hammer's concurrently presented
exhibition, Sunshine & Noir.

Included in Casting a Shadow will be major works such as My Lai, the
monumental 1968 painting in which Burkhardt incorporated actual human
skulls. Regarded by BURKHARDT as being among his greatest masterpieces, My
Lai has increasingly attracted international recognition from many preeminent
art historians and art critics. DONALD KUSPIT, for example, has regarded My
Lai and BURKHARDT'S other related works as being "among the greatest war
paintings especially modern war paintings--made."

The exhibition which addresses socially reactive issues, will also reflect the
duality represented in BURKHARDT'S body of work - a celebration of nature and
the human figure. Above all, Burkhardt's paintings are concerned with human
issues - both earthly and spiritual - evidenced in paintings as Signs of Our
Times and Journey Into the Unknown.

Los Angeles based HANS BURKHARDT was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1904.
BURKHARDT emigrated to New York in 1924, where he shared ARSHILE GORKY'S
studio for the better part of the years 1927-37. When he moved to Los Angeles
in 1937, BURKHARDT represented the most significant bridge between New York
and Los Angeles, in that his paintings of the 1930's are part of the genesis
of American Abstract Expressionism. Eminent art historian PETER SELZ in
recent writings noted "while working alongside GORKY, BURKHARDT met DeKOONING
or "Master Bill", as he was called by Gorky. Born in 1904, they each arrived
respectively from Armenia, Holland, and Switzerland. Simultaneously working
in Greenwich Village, they discovered new ways of painting which would move
art in America beyond European tradition."

Following BURKHARDT'S move to Los Angeles, his work continued to evolve in
provocative and independent fashion. Recently, a number of group and solo
museum exhibitions have shed greater light on BURKHARDT's evolution, revealing
the constancy in the development of his unique body of work. BURKHARDT
remained so potent throughout the 65 years represented in his oeuvres, that
his new works made significant impact on contemporary artists spanning each of
those decades.

For many L. A. contemporary artists of the 60s, he was the first artist with
whom they studied "who had a real identity as an artist...He was filled with
passion..." As TONY BERLANT reflected in ARTNEWS magazine in 1992, when
Burkhardt was honored for his lifetime achievement by the American Academy of
Arts & Letters in New York.

Since then international recognition of Hans Burkhardt as an important 20th
century artist has continued to expand. Recently a major article appeared in
THE IRISH TIMES written by Ireland's leading art critic, BRIAN FALLON. Upon
his retirement MR. FALLON selected HANS BURKHARDT as one of 12 artists who
have made the greatest personal impact upon him in his 35 years as a critic
for Ireland's leading journal.

HANS BURKHARDT: CASTING A SHADOW - SUNSHINE & NOIR extends from October 10
through December 24 at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Gallery. Gallery hours are
Tuesday through Friday 10:00 - 6:00; Saturday 10:00 - 5:00. For more
information phone (323) 938-5222.

A symposium on the works of Hans Burkhardt will be presented by panelists
Donald Kuspit, Henry Hopkins and Jack Rutberg on November 18, 1998. A
videotape recording will be available.