He Calleth His Own by Name--Potter's Field

Burke’s lithograph depicts an unidentifiable graveyard, set on rolling hills with trees scattered throughout the image. There are small human figures in the background, but the entire print feels desolate and void. Smaller gravestones are visible peeking through the grass, but the clear focal point of this image is a massive cruciform gravestone in the foreground of the print. The eye first travels to the right to the cross, then to the left to a scraggly tree, and finally to the background, where people appear to be digging. There is a contrast between the tonal values of the foreground and the background, with the foreground much darker and more defined, and the background lighter and more amorphous. It places a clear emphasis on the cross, disproportionately large and inevitably drawing attention--in stark contrast to the invisible indigent buried on Hart's Island, and the prison inmates who dug their graves. Burke's title alludes to a passage in John 10:3 that harshly judges the treatment of poor people in human societies, compared to a just world.

About the Artist

David Burke (Bochkousky) was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1917. At some point in his early life, he changed his name to Burke, anglicizing it, perhaps to avoid anti-immigrant sentiments. Other than that, little is known about his life before his work with the WPA. He would have been about twenty when he moved to New York City to work for the Federal Art Project around the late 1930s. During this time, he was a student at the American Artists School, a progressive school in New York City, associated with socialism. By 1940, he was a part of the faculty, teaching lithography classes there in the evenings (Stanley). Burke was also part of the American Artists Union. Starting in 1938, union members put on exhibitions to support artists during the Great Depression. His work, along with many others, like New Deal Museum artists Hugh Pearce Botts and Ernest Trubach, were shown at these exhibitions (McCausland). Along with this, Burke’s paintings were exhibited in many different galleries and schools in New York City, most notably at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. Here, he exhibited his work Evicted - Nanking, which unfortunately seems to have been lost to time. Burke also did an illustration for the Federal Writers Project’s New York City Guide (1939) showing a scene of a Clam Shack in Brooklyn. He was clearly very active during the New Deal era, but there is little information about his later life. It is unclear what he did afterwards or when he died, but his legacy lives on in many galleries across the United States. 18 works at Metropolitan Museum of Art, plus 1 as David Bochkowsky. 3 works at National Gallery of Art. 2 works at Sheldon Museum of Art. 1 work at Newark Museum of Art. 3 works at Philadelphia Museum of Art. 1 image at FAP.

Works Consulted: Art News 1 April 1939: 15+ Link; Lee Stanley, “Teaching Democracy in Art,” Daily Worker 12 April 1940: 7 Link; Elizabeth McCausland, “Significant Exhibits in Many Galleries,” Springfield Sunday Union and Republican 6 Feb. 1938: 6E Link;