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Born in 1907 in Terre Haute, Indiana, Burton Harry Callicott spent
much his of childhood and his seventy-year career as an artist
and educator in Memphis. Callicott graduated in 1931 from the
Cleveland School of Art, where he began an exploration of the
use of light and dark that would follow him throughout his
life. He is perhaps best known regionally for his set of three
large murals in the Memphis Pink Palace Museum titled The
Coming of De Soto.
Completing his training in sculpture at the Cleveland School
of Art in the midst of the Depression, Callicott returned to
Memphis, where his mother and stepfather, Michael Abt (Tech
Teacher),
resided. The director of the western division of Tennessee’s
Federal Works of Art Project, Abt played a major role in
launching Callicott’s career. He put Callicott to work
immediately on Memphis Cotton Carnival floats and displays for
other Memphis festivals while also helping him secure a
commission for a Public Works of Art Project mural in 1933.
Installed in the Memphis Museum of Natural History (now the
Memphis Pink Palace Museum), the three-panel mural depicts
Hernando De Soto’s arrival in West Tennessee. Another of
Callicott’s most recognized works, The Gleaners (1936), was
completed during the early years of his career and received
much attention at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. These early
projects set Callicott off on a long and successful career in
Memphis.
Callicott became a founding faculty member of the Memphis
Academy of Art (now the Memphis College of Art) in 1937. As
Tennessee’s first professional art school, the Cleveland
School of Art provided Callicott a solid base for the
demanding program of instruction for the new school. He began
as a teacher of sculpture and ceramics and went on to teach
drawing, painting, and calligraphy. Making an impact on
artists of local, regional, and national renown during his
decades of teaching, Callicott became professor emeritus in
1978.
Callicott’s early interest in sculpture quickly shifted in the
1930s to painting and the depiction of light and color on
natural objects, using the powerful expression of light to
reflect the spiritual in nature. Frequently illustrating the
racial inequalities of the South as seen in The Gleaners, his
early work often took on the social realist tone of American
Scene artists, as influenced by figures such as Jean-François
Millet, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco.
Although at first he was interested in the representation of
volume in figurative forms, his introduction to the work of
Hans Hoffmann in the 1940s encouraged him to pursue the
flattened perspective of Abstract Expressionism in his later
career. With this shift toward the abstract, he began to focus
on images of sunlight and rainbows as a portrayal of the true
spirit of light and color. Works such as Tree in the Sun
(1950) and the Rainbow series (1970s) characterize the
evolution of his later style.
Callicott’s works have been exhibited at various museums
across the state and region, including the Cheekwood Museum of
Art and the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, the West
Tennessee Regional Art Center in Humboldt, the Knoxville
Museum of Art, the Carroll Reece Museum at East Tennessee
State University, the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, and
the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia. Samples of his
artwork are on permanent display at the Memphis Brooks Museum
of Art and the Memphis Pink Palace Museum. The Tennessee Arts
Commission chose to honor the work of Callicott in 2000 with a
specialty license plate for which he designed a rainbow with
the caption, “art is . . . a rainbow.” Callicott continued to
live in Memphis until his death in 2003.
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- From
the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture |
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Callicotts
mastered the art of marriage |
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From the
Commercial Appeal May 20, 2001...by Debra Elliott |
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Artist
Burton Callicott recently entered Albers Art & Design
carrying a large ice chest.
He had
a simple offer for gallery owner Kathy Albers.
Would she like a few of the more than a dozen stuffed
eggs someone kindly dropped by his home? He
wouldn't be able to eat them alone.
Sharing stuffed eggs with the gallery owner who
represented him may have appeared an insignificant
gesture to some. But it held the story of change
for the noted and well-respected artist whose works were
often sold within minutes of gallery openings.
Callicott was alone.
His
wife Evelyne Baird Callicott died in March. She
was 91. The two were married for 68 years.
They endured much together including the Great
Depression.
The
two met at Tech High School and continued their
courtship long distance. She went to work full
time after high school to help her mother; he went away
to attend art school.
"A
long-distance telephone call was more expensive than we
could afford," Callicott said. "We wrote through
the years."
He
came home for the holidays and during the summer.
He graduated in 1931 and returned home for good.
The marriage was held off for awhile.
"In
those days, a fellow couldn't marry a girl until they
had a job."
Callicott, 93, began his career working for his
stepfather (Mike Abt - Artist and Tech Teacher)
- making floats for the Cotton Carnival. When he
began working full time, year-round for the Carnival,
the two got married. He later joined the faculty
of the Memphis Academy of Art.
"My
dream was to teach and to teach at the college level,"
Callicott said.
The
two had two children. Evelyn Baird Callicott
became active in the art circles, supporting her husband
and the arts.
In the
art circles, if the Callicotts attended an event, it was
considered special.
But
Evelyne Callicott's main interest was her family.
She cherished her husband, their children and
grandchildren.
Burton
Callicott taught many people the value of skilled art,
both as a professor and an artist. Evelyn Calicott
also had something to teach us: that some art reaches
beyond the studios, museums and galleries where the
images hang.
It's
called the art of loving.
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