Current Exhibition

Through a Glass Clearly:
The Art of John Vander Burgh

August 22 - September 18, 2005

Opening Reception:
Friday, September 9, 2005 5:00 - 7:00

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This event is the first monographic exhibition of the work of stained glass artist John Vander Burgh, (1916-2004). He attended the Royal Academy of Arts in the Hague in 1935-37. In 1951 he immigrated to the United States. He worked at first at the Grand Rapids Art Glass Company, and then set up his own art studio in Zeeland, Michigan in 1957. His professional career, spanning five decades, has left behind an enormous legacy of windows in over a hundred buildings, mostly in Western Michigan. In addition to windows, he created hundreds of commemorative and decorative pieces, now in collections as far-flung as New York City and Tokyo. Vander Burgh’s style shifted between the more traditional medievalizing tendency of the Arts and Crafts movement of the nineteenth century, and the modern tendencies of the mid-twentieth century.

In this exhibition, the De Pree Gallery presents here original stained glass works, as well as Vander Burgh’s own working and presentation drawings. The exhibition has been curated by John Hanson, Director of the De Pree Gallery, with the assistance of Chris Spencer, Trustee of the John and Swany Vander Burgh Trust. Mr. Spencer will give an address of Vander Burgh’s life at the opening.