Jack Burnham

Jack Wesley Burnham Jr. (Chicago, 1931) is an American writer on art and technology, who taught art history at Northwestern University and the University of Maryland. He is one of the main forces behind the emergence of systems art in the 1960s.

Biography

Jack Burnham was born in 1931 and lived much of his life in the Chicago area. He graduated from the Yale School of Art with a BFA in 1959 and an MFA in 1961. From 1955 to 1965 he worked as a sculptor, often created sculptures that included light.

In the 1960s he started teaching art history at Northwestern University, and became chairman of their art department. In the 1980s he moved to the University of Maryland and again chaired the art and art history departments. Burnham was a Fellow at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies from 1968 to 1969.

Since the 1990s he is retired, and lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, immersed in Kabbalah. [ [http://www.volweb.cz/horvitz/burnham/homepage.html Homepage] Jack Burnham, retrieved 20 March 2008.]

Work

Jack Burnham worked as a writer, and in the 1960s and 1970s made importance contributions as a art theorist, critic and curator in the field of systems art. [Charlie Gere, "Art, Time and Technology: Histories of the Disappearing Body" (2005) Berg, pp. 124-138] In systems art the concept and ideas of process related systems and systems theory are involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic object related and material concerns. Burnham named Systems art in the 1968 Artforum article "Real Systems Art". He had investigated the effects of science and technology on the sculpture of this century, and saw a dramatic contrast between the handling of the place-oriented "object sculpture" and the extreme mobility of Systems sculpture. [Jack Burnham (1968), "Beyond Modern Sculpture: The Effects of Science and Technology on the Sculpture of This Century", G. Braziller, p.32.]

Publications

Burnham wrote two books and dozens of articles in magazines like: "Art and Artists magazine", "Arts and Society", "Artforum" magazine, "Arts magazine". His books:
* 1968, "Beyond Modern Sculpture: The Effects of Science and Technology on the Sculpture of This Century", New York: George Braziller; London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press.
* 1969, "Art in the Marcusean Analysis", vol 6 of the "Penn State Papers in Art Education", edited by Paul Edmonston (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University, 1969).
* 1973, "The Structure of Art", Revised Edition, Brazillera, ISBN 0807605956.
* 1974, "Great Western Salt Works: Essays on the Meaning of Post-Formalist Art", New York: George Braziller. 0-8076-0740-1.

About Jack Burnham

*Charlie Gere, "Art, Time and Technology: Histories of the Disappearing Body" (2005) Berg, pp. 124-138
* Matthew Rampley (2005). [http://virose.pt/vector/b_12/rampley.html "Systems Aesthetics: Burnham and Others"] . In: "Vector e-zine". issue B-12, January 2005.
* Corrine Robins (1972). "Burnham's Burden: Art is Over...Again" in "Art in America". March 1972, pp. 14-15.
* Edward A. Shanken (1998). [http://www.artexetra.com/House.html "The House That Jack Built: Jack Burnham's Concept of Software as a Metaphor for Art"] . In: "Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Vol". 6, No. 10 (November, 1998).
* Willoughby Sharp (1970). "Willoughby Sharp Interviews Jack Burnham" in Arts magazine. Vol. 45, No. 2, November 1970, pp. 21-23
* Luke Skrebowski (2006). [http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/06spring/skrebowski.htm "All Systems Go: Recovering Jack Burnhams 'Systems Aesthetics"] . Tate Papers, Spring 2006

References

External links

* [http://www.volweb.cz/horvitz/burnham/homepage.html Homepage] Jack Burnham
* [http://www.dxarts.washington.edu/courses/202/current/gallery/burnham.pdf Jack Burnham, "Systems Esthetics"] , Reprinted from Artforum (September, 1968).
* [http://www.volweb.cz/horvitz/burnham/lutz-interview.html Interview with Jack Burnham] by Lutz Dammbeck