The Running Horse

Burkhard's photographs capture the most intimate details or embrace the iimmensity of the world. WIth his monumental formats, he focuses without artifice the essence that escapes us while affirming the place of the image in space, its role as agitator of our conscience. In his landscapes, the scale is impossible to determine; the size of the subject does not matter, only their power to stimulate. 

With his subtle use of white and black, Balthasar Burkhard pays tribute to shadow that exists only in presence of light. Thus, he translates the truth of life at once generous and fleeting. 

As a hyperrealist dreamer, Burkhard, a fan of Courbet, reveals the universal poetry. This was reaffirmed when Serge Lemoine invited Burkhard to show his works at the exhibition organised for Gustave Courbet at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2007-2008.

Burkhard discovered photography at a young age when his father gave him his first camer. Later, he is hired by the photographer Kurt Blum who would teach him precision of exposing and the mastery of colour gradation. This work puts him in contact with many artists of the 60s bubbling artistic scene. In 1970, he takes part in his first group exhibition at the Kunstmuseum of Lucerne. 

In 1974, Burkhard moves to Chicago where he takes up teaching and organises his first solo exhibition. Six years later, once back in Switzerland, Burkhard works on more collaborations with other artists, exhibits in the most prestigious museums, from Geneva to Tokyo, to Paris and Milan. The year 1997 sees his work officially recognised in a first retrospective in an exhibition entitled Eloge de l'Ombre, at the Rath museum in Geneva.