During his long career Burton Harry Callicott pursued several avenues: first sculpture, followed by figurative and landscape paintings, before turning to non-objective and abstracted canvases. He saw a certain theme running throughout, and explained: “My paintings [are] always inspired by light, (aside from the early figurative works); at first direct sunlight on trees, green fields, roads, houses, sunset and moonlit skies—finally became in the eighties and nineties attempts to paint light itself. Those paintings evolved from paintings of the rainbow done in the seventies.” In 2000 the Tennessee Arts Commission asked him to design a special license plate with the motif of a rainbow and the caption: “art is a rainbow.”
Callicott was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but spent his childhood and most of his life in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1931 he graduated from the Cleveland (Ohio) School of Art where he focused on sculpture. Returning to Memphis to teach in the public schools, he also undertook projects under the auspices of the New Deal, including designs for floats for the Memphis Cotton Carnival parades which he did for twenty years. A more prestigious assignment came from the Public Works of Art Project for a mural depicting Hernando de Soto’s discovery of the Mississippi River and his encounters with Native Americans. The three panels were installed and remain today at the Memphis Museum of Natural History (now the Pink Palace Museum, so named for its pink Georgian marble walls).
In 1937 Callicott became a member of the inaugural faculty at the Memphis Academy of Art (now Memphis College of Art). Initially he taught ceramics and sculpture, but then branched out to include two-dimensional subjects: drawing, painting, and calligraphy. He remained affiliated with the institution for the remainder of his career until his retirement in 1973. Five years later he was appointed professor emeritus. The Gleaners—a work with overtones of social commentary—was selected for the art exhibition at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. During World War II Callicott served as a draftsman and created illustrations related to the assembly of B-29 pressurized cabins.
The 1940s saw a dramatic shift in direction toward non-representational imagery, with an emphasis on the sun and rainbows. In the 1950s Callicott embraced Theosophy, a spiritual movement inflected by Eastern values that promoted universal brotherhood and social improvement. In 1959 he became a life member of the Theosophical Society in America, taught classes about Theosophy, and lectured on such themes as karma, life after death, and intuition in art.
In their simplicity and sublime use of color the late abstract paintings reflect his metaphysical leanings. For him, “Art reaches layers of consciousness that are inaccessible to verbal formulations and rational discourse. I believe that works of art actually emanate energies which have the power of resonating with and drawing responses at spiritual levels.” As he aged, Callicott turned to poetry written in beautiful calligraphy; several relating to his paintings. In 2020, years after Callicott’s death, his son published a coffee table book of his father’s paintings and poems paired with meditations from Burton Carley, celebrating their shared love and appreciation for spirituality.