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Painting

« Essential and primary impulse. So many unrealised ideas!
Just a few brushstrokes. Manifesting the hidden.

Tabula rasa.
Intuition and imagination. Inspiration and improvisation.
Main lines–bylines. The right moment. Rhythm, tension and force.
Favourable coincidences. Abstract–concrete. My own symbol language.
Anachronistic statements. Ambiguities. Picture metaphors–picture aphorisms.
How the true world becomes a fable.

Beatitudo vitae. It is you, oh bliss!
From the inside out–from the outside in.
Mixed moments. Blessed, creative nights.
Homecoming into the silent deep. All senses are busy as bees.
Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Heine: Companions through the night.
Moonshine on the puszta. Either–or; neither nor.
Ataraxia. Freedom in the realm of dreams.
Day to day, you are my precious solace.

Facial expressions of nature. Fruit from nymphs’ groves.
Trees that write poems in the sky. Howling wind, lightning and thunder.
Dancing, foaming sea; the dancing choir of the stars.
In the company of naiads.
Free spirit.
Like a rapture. »

– Urs Burki

About the artist’s paintings

The artist’s first documented paintings emerged in the early 1970s. However, Urs Burki did not use canvas as his preferred painting support until 1980. He sometimes used the unprimed side of the painting support and occasionally would paint both sides of the canvas. Painting allowed Urs Burki to enjoy the greatest possible degree of spontaneity and freedom of expression. The artist often painted as if in a trance and would use his whole body. Urs Burki primarily used the following painting materials: oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, plant extracts, mixed media. In total, the artist left behind over 500 paintings (canvas and paper), including a number of collages.