Emerson Burkhart

Music

Sunday night, after watching another installment of the Complete Jane Austen on PBS (it was Emma...and no, our daughter was not named after the protagonist) I stayed up another couple minutes to watch the local featurette. In the past, they've shown mini-documentaries on things like the construction of the LeVeque Tower or the history of some local attraction...and I'm a history buff, so the feature was sure to keep my interest, whatever it was.

It turned out to be a piece on a massive, 70 foot mural that once hung in the auditorium at Central High School (now COSI) painted by a local artist, Emerson Burkart. He had been commissioned to paint the piece simply called, "Music" in the 1930's. It featured musicians and music lovers alike apparently swaying and dancing euphorically. Just four years after it was painted, officials deemed it "too risque" and had it painted over. Then, in the 1990's a group of students from Fort Hayes participated in a project to restore the mural to its' original beauty...each student donating a minimum of one hour of service to remove the chalk-and-glue composite covering the painting. The project is now complete and the mural hangs in the Battelle Hall at the Columbus Convention Center for all to enjoy.

I knew as I was watching the program that I had to do a blog post about this (art, prohibition and a renaissance...all rolled into one great story). Then yesterday, on a chance visit to the Ohio Historical Society (my six-year-old wanted to see the mummy there), I saw Emerson Burkhart's face staring at me from behind a glass enclosure... he's one of the local artists featured by the society and his self portrait hangs in the gallery.

He was born in Northwestern Ohio, attended Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, painted in New York City and Massachusetts and eventually settled in a home on Woodland Avenue with his wife Mary Ann. She died tragically at the age of 37, and Emerson remained a widower. He died of a stroke in 1969. He left a mark on the art world, but it's a shame he wasn't better known; especially by those of us lifelong Columbus residents.

His fascinating story is recounted here by a friend of his, if you (like I) care to learn more. Be sure to check out the gallery links on the same page too!

A portrait of the artist's wife