"Hans Burkhardt: The California State University, Northridge Collection,"runs through Oct. 11 in CSUN's Art Galleries located at the north end of campus between Halsted and Plummer Streets, just east of Etiwanda.

Burkhardt's works, which often depict compelling images of human experience, have been championed by some critics as major creative works of our time. His pieces are included in major collections and museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the British Museum in London; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Robert Bucker, dean of Northridge's Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication, said Burkhardt played an important role at the university, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

"Hans was an extraordinary presence on the campus for more than half of those 50 years, and the anniversary seems a perfect occasion for a long overdue exhibition of his work," Bucker said. "We are proud to share and celebrate with the community the rich Hans Burkhardt holdings in the California State University, Northridge Foundation Collection."

CSUN art professor Betty Ann Brown, curator of the exhibition, said "Burkhardt's work engaged several visual languages: lyrical naturalism, modernist abstraction and potent expressionism.

"In painting, drawing and printmaking, he addressed the visual delights of everyday life and the horrors of war, the truths of love and the lies of government," she said. "The diverse formal and emotional territories of his work are united by Burkhardt's humanistic vision and astonishing technical skills. He created images of sumptuous beauty and searing commentaries on the social and political issues of the time. In doing so, he made a unique and lasting contribution to 20th century art."

A Swiss immigrant, Burkhardt learned the fundamentals of his craft in the 1920s and 1930s at the shoulders of Arshile Gorky, a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. It was a rare heritage that he shared with artist Willem de Kooning.

When Burkhardt moved to Los Angeles in 1937, he represented "the most significant bridge" between New York's and Los Angeles' art communities, according to art gallery owner Jack Rutberg, a longtime Burkhardt friend and supporter.

Burkhardt also spent time in Mexico, absorbing the country's culture and artistic influences. He was a prolific artist, frequently exhibiting his work in Los Angeles and Mexican galleries, and influencing a generation of young artists with pieces that spoke of his emotions, rather than just raw abstract objects.

"Hans was a reactive painter and a symbolist,' Rutberg wrote for the exhibition's catalogue. "Events drove him, whether they were the stings of injustice or the inspiration found in his surroundings. He confided to me, 'I don't know what to paint. Something has to happen.' He seldom had long to wait though, painting the full range of his emotions. In awkward moments, when a painting needed a title, Hans would typically say, 'It has a feeling of' rather than 'It is...'"

Burkhardt began teaching art at Northridge in the 1960s. He retired as a full professor emeritus in 1972, but stayed on at the university for more than a decade after because he enjoyed working with students.

In a 1974 interview with an archivist from the Smithsonian Institution, Burkhardt said, "I must say I've had a very good life and I enjoyed teaching very much. It made me really happy...when you have a good relationship with your students and they learn something, there's a certain amount of prestige, because the students love me and they still come to see me, and they produce good things."

Burckhardt said he based his teaching techniques on those of his mentor, Gorky, in particular Gorky's practice of making a pencil drawing, or "blueprint," first of what he wanted to achieve.

"I gave [my students] the idea that each one has to learn how to see and think for himself," he told the Smithsonian. "And I gave them the freedom to do it the way they wanted to, the way they could do it best. And I succeeded very well."

Two years before his death in 1994, Burkhardt was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Among those present when he was honored were writers Edward Albee, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut and John Updike. Artists included Paul Cadmus, John Chamberlain, Christo, Chuck Close, Helen Frankenthaler, Nancy Graves, Roy Lichtenstein, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear and George Rickey.

The citation, penned by painter Wayne Thiebaud, said Burkhardt's "works continue to urge us to reflect upon our deepest human concerns about ourselves and the world."

The exhibition is co-sponsored by the Hans G. and Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation and CSUN's Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication.

A public reception celebrating the exhibition is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 5.

For more information about the show, call CSUN's Art Galleries at 818-677-2226 or 818-677-2156.