Burton Kopelow: Myth in the Making

About

Myth in the Making provides a succinct, retrospective view of Kopelow’s life as an artist, revealing a man deeply tuned to universal spiritual archetypes, Theosophy, Jung, Campbell, Tibetan thangka paintings, and Zen. Kopelow’s painting career spanned six decades of exploration, expression and invention. His bold use of color, evocative imagery and personal mythology are strongly felt in all of his art.

On what would have been his 100th birthday, the audience is invited to explore Kopelow’s personal path as an artist, and contemplate the myth he was making.

Burton Kopelow produced over 3,000 pieces of art in his lifetime. He was an artist’s artist, dedicated so fully to his craft, so fully immersed in the potential of art and the ongoing creation story that binds us all, that his peers would refer to him as “the guardian of the threshold.” Perhaps it was this stewardship, this devotional practice, that dissuaded Kopelow from self-promotion: Burton’s mind, body and soul were too busy painting.

The process of creating art, he would say, is like the alchemists trying to produce gold from lead. His practice was dedicated to transcribing this transformation of the self into a higher level of being. In his words:

“The world is made of archetypes and has the same images running through all kinds of cultures. Regardless of the kind of culture it is you will find the same motifs appearing and that unites everybody into one bag, so to speak, that we're all related and that appeals to me.” For Kopelow, life is not only predicated by our collected and collective mythology — it is the ongoing creation of these mythologies.

Opening Reception:
April 27, 1-5pm with curator led tours

Panel Discussion: May 11, 4pm with curator Nancy Blumstein, artist David Orr, and author and scholar John Bucher

Regular Exhibiting Hours: Tuesday-Friday 12:00-6:00pm
& by appointment (INFO@PRS.ORG)

Please email events@prs.org or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.