Description
W. Carl Burger: A Painter’s Life explores the journey and work of a much-loved New Jersey artist and teacher as he celebrates his 95th birthday. The German-born artist came to the United States at age one in 1926. As a teenager he was declared an enemy alien. As an 18-year-old American soldier, Carl returned to Pforzheim, the decimated German city of his birth, during WWII. After the war, he became a revered professor at Kean University in New Jersey. Throughout the documentary, we hear from a host of friends, fellow artists, students, and New Jersey’s First Lady Tammy Murphy. A large watercolor by W. Carl Burger depicting the Jersey shore is the only work by a living artist now hanging at Drumthwacket, the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey. Also featured is the Morris Museum’s current retrospective spanning seven decades of Carl’s astonishingly diverse career. W. Carl Burger: Mastery of the Medium brings together his watercolors created as an American soldier in Normandy, magnificent oil landscapes, intricate and provocative pencil drawings, and more.
Produced by Eric Schultz.
This documentary was nominated for a 2021 Mid-Atlantic Emmy.
