MISSION

To document and order the artwork of Charles E. Sutterlin, as well as the facts surrounding his professional and private life. It is intended that a database be developed, that would catalog substantially all of Sutterlins works. We request that anyone in possession of a Sutterlin painting, or with information concerning the life of Charles Sutterlin, to please contact us.

Between The Cracks

So who exactly was Charles E. Sutterlin? The biography contained herein has far more personal anecdotal information than professional facts. We know almost nothing of his works, not their quantity nor when they were produced. We have no idea what percentage are represented here.

Why? Charles Sutterlin was humble to a fault. Whatever a promoter was, he was not. His prime years as an artist were during the Great Depression and its end with WWII. The few measures to publicize his works, documented in the artifacts section, occurred during a period when there were more pressing concerns for this country than emerging artists.

Once Sutterlin went blind, any chance at a wider recognition was lost. His wife, while acknowledging his genius, was a practical person who taught school, came home, and clung to their privacy. Upon his death, Miriam Sutterlin took no interest in recognition for her husband, and in her later years, refused to allow these pictures to be photographed.

As of August 25th of 2001, there is not a single reference to Charles E. Sutterlin on the World Wide Web. By all of our conventional measures, neither he, nor his work, ever existed.

Today, on the Internet, you will find hundreds of references to the parachutist who landed on the Statue of Liberty on August 24th. There are tens of thousand of references to “Pokemon”. Hundreds of thousands of references to almost any “B” movie. And literally millions of sites and chat boards recognizing the accomplishments of Britney Spears and her peers.

In a world increasingly inhabited by product, plugged by partisans, then quickly replaced by the next “big thing”, one has to wonder if there is any room available for these vestiges of Charles Sutterlin. Or are they destined to remain where they have so thoroughly fallen, one atop another, between the cracks?

– August 25, 2001