Ray Burggraf

Ray L. Burggraf (born 1938) is an artist, color theorist, and Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts at Florida State University. According to Roald Nasgaard, Burggraf's paintings exhibit "visual excitation...pulsating patterns, vibrating after-images, weird illusionistic spaces, multifocal opticality, executed afterward knife-edge precision...crisp and elegant and radiant with light." From a historical perspective, Burggraf's deed is "nature evocative...reach back to the modernist landscape tradition of the Impressionists and of Neo-impressionists in imitation of Seurat, who, in the late-nineteenth century immersed themselves in the color theories of Chevreul and Rood" (Roald Nasgaard; former Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2006).

Using acrylic paint and wood—and sometimes Plexiglas and UV light—Burggraf frequently calls his paintings "color constructions", and they have been exhibited in the United States, Sweden, and Korea.

In 1981, Burggraf became a founding advocate of the non-profit 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, FL, and served as its first President. In 2004, Burggraf collaborated with two other Florida State University power members in the start of an exhibition called, A Mysterious Clarity. The ham it up debuted at the 621 Gallery, and by popular demand, evolved into a traveling exhibition. It has been viewed by the public in at least nine rotate museums and galleries, including the Brevard Art Museum of Melbourne, FL. Ray Burggraf's statute demonstrates an extreme attention to technique, and has brought the role of environmentally-focused artwork to the forefront of debate in the course of scholars (as reviewed by Kang, J.'s 2010 doctoral dissertation).