Robert Burkert

August 20, 1930, Racine, WI  – March 8, 2019, East Orleans, MA

Born in Racine in 1930, Robert Burkert would gain a rich education in art early when he received a scholarship to take classes and print make at the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts. There, he studied under director and landscape painter, Sylvester Jerry, and artist, Cherry B. Jerry. Meanwhile, at Racine Washington Park High School, Burkert studied under well-known landscape and still-life painter, Helen Sawyer.

Among printmaking, Burkert was also interested in comic art while he was a teenager. This led to early artistic recognition when he was given the opportunity to create comic strips for the Chicago Tribune.

After high school, Burkert studied drawing, printmaking, and painting at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He became thoroughly influenced by his teachers, including printmakers Dean Meeker and Alfred Sessler, surrealist painter, John Wilde, painter Don Anderson, as well as social realists James Watrous and Santos Zingale. While studying at UW- Madison, Burkert received awards in regional exhibitions. Burkert received his BS in drawing, painting, and printmaking in 1952 and an MS in painting and printmaking in 1955.

After graduating, Burkert taught for one year at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He then returned to Wisconsin to work as a professor at the UW - Milwaukee. He later held the position of Head of the Printmaking Department until his retirement in 1993.

Burkert is most known as a printmaker, however he did occasionally experiment with painting, illustration, and portraiture. According to art critic, James Auer, his art was influenced by his teachers at the UW – Madison. From John Wilde, Burkert acquired true observation, from Santos Zingale, an interest in social realism, and from Alfred Sessler, “gut-level humanism”.[1] While Burkert experimented with styles from pointillism to drip-and-splash, he continuously maintained his interest in representation and symbolism.[2]