Revisiting the West Revisiting the West (July 30, 2004)

Book by local authors features history of massive murals

By David Herbert

When Mountain View residents David and Susan Burwen set out on a cross-country road trip from the East Coast to the West in 1971, the couple could not possibly imagine that this journey would bring them a lifelong friendship with a new artist, a passion for his work and an idea for a book.

The couple, recently married and fresh out of graduate school, had decided to move to California and were traversing the country by automobile. Their decision to pass through Jackson Hole, Wyo. would be a fateful one. Exploring the small resort town, the Burwens came upon "Rendezvous Gallery," a small art house that featured the work of one man, Carl Roters.

The pair was "enthralled" by the intricate and moving paintings of the American West, but since the couple had a "net-negative worth," even the most modest pieces were beyond their means.

Several years later, however, David and Susan returned to Jackson Hole and sought out the same shop, only to find to their dismay that it had closed. The couple, however, was able to find Roters' telephone number, and when they called him asking to perhaps see some of his pieces, he invited them over. Arriving at 7 p.m., the Burwens stayed until well after three in the morning, enchanted by the artist's gift for storytelling.

"That was the beginning of our friendship," David said of that night.

The couple continued making the trek out to Jackson Hole each summer to see Roters, who shared his stories, sold them art and watched the Burwens' children grow up. In 1989, when Roters died, his widow Ramona approached them about writing a book about her husband's work. At the time the couple was busy with their venture capital firm, but by 2001, they were less busy and decided to tackle the project.

"The Rendezvous Murals," the two giant murals which the book focuses on, were commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1957 for the newly-built Jackson Lake Lodge. They captured the mid-19th century gatherings of mountain men, annual rendezvous at which fur trappers sold their pelts and threw a three-week party full of drinking, gambling and horseracing.

The book is less an art book than a piece of Americana, explained Susan Burwen. The genre-breaker, of course, features the murals of Carl Roters, but it also looks into his development as an artist and explores the history of the period he immortalized in his artwork.

Roters was a "painter first, muralist second," according to David Burwen, and did immense amounts of research so that his paintings were historically accurate, making his murals visually stunning and historically exciting. Even on a subject as mundane as the grass, Roters went the extra mile, painstakingly drawing every blade in "level of detail that was really unusual."

Reproducing Roters' work, including the two "Rendezvous" murals -- one 8-feet high and 50-feet wide and the other 8-feet high and 29-feet wide -- at Jackson Lake Lodge, was no easy task. The Burwens called upon their friend, photographer Martin Paul, for help. Paul used state-of-the-art digital scanning equipment to capture the color and texture of the murals, images that were sent from Boston to Copenhagen and finally to Italy, where the book was printed. The result is an explosion of colors and detail surpassing most current art books.

Like the exploring mountain men and Roters' innovative mural techniques, the book is a pioneer too, both in its genre and production.

Asked why should someone plunk down $95 for a coffee table book about an obscure muralist, David Burwen explained his book is much more than that.

"It's a piece of American history. It's the story of the development of an American master and the story of the opening of the West."

The book is on sale at Books Inc. in downtown Mountain View and on the Internet at www.carlroters.com.

E-mail David Herbert at dherbert@mv-voice.com

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