Jack Burnham
Jack Wesley Burnham Jr. 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, sculpture was his primary medium, often including light. (A photo of a ceiling-mounted piece from 1968, made of electro-luminescent tape and aluminum channels, appears in Beyond Modern Sculpture). He was a Fellow at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies in 1968-9. During his most prolific period as a writer, he taught art history at Northwestern University, eventually becoming chairman of the art department. In the 1980s he moved to the University of Maryland (College Park campus) and again chaired the art and art history departments. Now retired, he lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, immersed in Kabbalah.
In his articles "Systems Esthetics" and "Real Time Systems" (published in Artforum in 1968 and 1969, respectively), Jack Burnham already explored a systems approach to art: "A systems viewpoint is focused on the creation of stable, ongoing relationships between organic and non-organic systems". In modified form, this approach still holds a noticeable position in today's critical discourse on digital art. In 1970 curated Software - Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art in New York City.
- Publications
- Jack Burnham, "Systems Esthetics," Artforum Vol. 7, No. 1 (September 1968), p. 30-35, http://www.volweb.cz/horvitz/burnham/systems-esthetics.html
- Jack Burnham, "Real Time Systems," Artforum Vol. 8, No. 1 (September 1969) p. 49-55. Reprinted in Great Western Salt Works.
- External links
