Charley Harper (1922-2007) American, Serigraph. Modernist image of a duck and a leaf on water. 

Overall: 23 1/4 X 13 3/4 in. 

Sight: 18 X 8 1/2 in. 

#3868 . 

Charles “Charley” Burton Harper was born in Frenchton, West Virginia in 1922. His upbringing on his family farm influenced his work all his life, and gave him an appreciation for nature and animal life. He left his farm home to study art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and won the academy’s first Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Scholarship. He also met fellow artist Edie Mckee there, whom he married shortly after graduation in 1947. They spent their honeymoon traveling the country, mainly in the west and south, while exploring and making art. Harper returned to the Art Academy of Cincinnati as a teacher and also worked for a commercial firm before setting out on his own. He and his wife worked out of their Roselawn and Finneytown homes, and later, with their only child Brett Harper, formed Harper Studios. During his career he illustrated numerous books, notably The Golden Book of Biology, magazines such as Ford Times, and many prints and posters as well. As his subjects were mainly natural, with birds prominently featured, Harper often created works for nature-based organizations, among them the National Park Service, Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Nature Center, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Hamilton County (Ohio) Park District, and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania. He also designed interpretive displays for Everglades National Park. He referred to his style as “minimal realism,” attempting to capture the essence of his subjects with as few visual elements as possible. In his teachings and personal philosophy he encouraged artists to think of a painting as an ecosystem, with many crucial parts that make up the whole, and drew from Cubism, Minimalism, Eisteinian physics and other modern influences in direct contrast to the prevailing realism-oriented nature artwork that originated with John James Audubon. In honor of Harper’s work, December 8th, 2006 was declared “Charley Harper Day” by the mayor of Cincinnati. He died the following year on June 10th, 2007, after several months of fighting pneumonia.