Jump to content

Nancy Ekholm Burkert

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nancy Ekholm Burkert
Born (1933-02-16) February 16, 1933 (age 91)
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison
Known forChildren's book illustration

Nancy Ekholm Burkert (born February 16, 1933) is an American artist and illustrator. Her most celebrated work is the picture book Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1972), which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Caldecott Honor Book (one runner-up for the Caldecott Medal).[1]

Biography

[edit]

Burkert was born in Sterling, Colorado, and moved with her family to Wisconsin in 1945.[2] She received both her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.[1]

Burkert's first illustration work was for James and the Giant Peach in 1961.[1]

In 1982, she was co-author of a museum catalog for the Milwaukee Art Museum, on the Wisconsin artist John Wilde.

She won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Special Award for Valentine and Orson in 1990.[1]

In 2003, she was subject of an exhibition at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst.[3]

She married Robert Burkert (1930-2019),[4] a professor of Fine Art at UW-Milwaukee. Several of Robert Burkert's lithographs are in the Tate Britain collection of prints and drawings.[5] Together they went on to have a son and daughter, [6] with whom they spent time in Europe and at their family cottage in northern Wisconsin. The couple retired to the coastal area in historic East Orleans, Massachusetts.[7]

Work

[edit]

Her early work demonstrated a command of shading and texture through pencil and charcoal, in addition to her usual media of pen and ink combined with colored pencil and watercolor. Beginning with The Nightingale and concluding with Snow White, her mastery of light, shadow and depth combined Renaissance chiaroscuro with an Oriental awareness of space in settings that were realistic in detail, yet also fanciful and timeless in content. Her later work continued this emphasis on intense, intimate detail, revealing a passion for the complexity and variety of life.[8]

Her illustration work on Valentine & Orson was considered to be a consistently whole work of art that was remarkable for its attention to detail and luminosity.[9]

Illustrated works

[edit]

Awards

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
  • Levy, Hannah Heidi (2004). Famous Wisconsin: Artists and Architects. Oregon, WI: Badger Books.
  • Curley, Jane Bayard (2003). Nancy Ekholm Burkert: The Art of Illustration: a Deep and Delicate Vision. Amherst, MA: Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
  • Larkin, David (1977). The Art of Nancy Ekholm Burkert. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Trout, Anita M. (2003). Burkert, Nancy Ekholm. Ipswich, Massachusetts: Literary Reference Center. p. 131. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  2. ^ "Burkert, Nancy Ekholm". Wisconsin Children's Authors & Illustrators. 3 May 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  3. ^ "Nancy Ekholm Burkert: The Art of Illustration". The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  4. ^ "Robert Burkert - Gallery Of Wisconsin Art". galleryofwisconsinart.com. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  5. ^ Tate. "Robert Burkert 1930 – 2019". Tate. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  6. ^ "Nancy Ekholm Burkert". www.wisconsinacademy.org. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  7. ^ "Dignity Memorial - Robert Randall Burkert".
  8. ^ "1995 Notable Wisconsin Authors". Wisconsin Library Association. 2004. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  9. ^ Silvey, Anita (2009). "Special Citations". Horn Book Magazine. 85 (1): 35–40. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nancy_Ekholm_Burkert&oldid=1252707507"