Burton Silverman is considered one of America's most accomplished and important realist painters and illustrators. His draftsmanship, brushwork, composition, use of color, and tonality both owe a debt to and have continued the traditions and standards established by the great representationalist artists throughout history. Realism has made something of a resurgence at the beginning of the 21st century and many in the latest generation cite Silverman's work as inspiration, much as Silverman himself drew upon and advanced upon the works of Rembrandt, Degas, Sargeant, and more. "I have tried to reunite form—both color and composition—with content. the realistic and narrative imagery, to arrive at some kind of synthesis of 20th century formalism with 20th century sensibilities", Silverman has said. "I do not believe that the way paint is applied to a canvas should be more important than what is portrayed." After being discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces, he worked as both gallery artist and illustrator. For the latter, he was election to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2001. In addition to illustrations featured in Time magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire, famously, Silverman's watercolor paintings graced Jethro Tull's 1971 album, Aqualung, an iconic image that is still celebrated today. Beginning the early 1990s, Silverman focused on portraiture and refining his style, which ran in opposition to the dictums and tenets of modernist art—in and of itself a radical act. "In view of the many honors he has been accorded, it may seem odd to describe Burton Silverman as an artistic underdog, yet the designation actually fits. Unlike his exact contemporary, the abstract expressionist Cy Twombly, Silverman is neither world famous nor rich. This situation says less about the immense talents of these two men than it does about the state of American art in the 20th century", the art historian Mathias Anderson wrote. According to Dartmouth College Robert C. McGrath, "His art may be seen as a kind of radical realism by virtue of its continuing devotion to a humanist vision that has survived modernist dogma of the 50s as well as the austere impersonal canons of judgment embedded in the 'new realism' of the eighties. For Silverman, form remains inextricably linked to meaning. Asserting itself throughout his painting is the fluid brushwork and natural coloration that informs the eye while eliciting, alchemically, a compassionate understanding of the human condition. In the final analysis, it is Silverman's unflinching vision together with his creative rethinking of tradition that constitutes his most defiant and enduring artistic contribution."
