Created by Nathan Wilkinson and Olivia Stoddard

Visual Analysis

Scott Burton created Two-Part Chairs, Right Angle Version (a Pair) in 1987. The sculpture is located at the entrance of the Biology building at Western Washington University, which is surrounded by black rocks and bright green vegetation. As the viewer approaches the front door of the building, they are greeted by two granite chairs, each planted in front of a pillar. Two-Parts Chairs are each constructed of two different sized L-shaped slabs of granite. The smaller piece is placed upside-down on top of the taller slab, creating a large cube for the base of the chair with a rectangular prism extending upwards. Composing the pieces in this way makes the chairs constructed out of only right angles.

Although the sculpture is placed in front of the entry, it could easily be unnoticed due to the granite’s color palette. Vibrant tones of black, grey, pink, and white collide and intermix to settle the sculpture into the surrounding environment. The exterior of the Biology building is made of a light-grey concrete. Faded black, red, and yellow bricks are paved out around the staircase leading to the Biology building. The ground rises and falls, with yellow lines intertwining and cutting across the red brick. Loosely shaped patches of black bricks are scattered throughout the sea of varying red hues.

Initial Reactions

Nathan

Before I visited Two-Part Chairs, Right Angle Version (a Pair), I looked at images of it online. I wasn’t impressed at the time because of its minimalistic form. My opinion quickly changed once I was in the environment of the sculpture. Scott Burton created a compelling artwork and is now my favorite installation on campus. Burton was extremely intentional with his form and material. The Biology building has lines etched into the structure to create right angles across the entire surface. This architectural detail complements the simple form of Two-Parts Chairs and integrates the sculpture into its environment.

I think Burton’s use of granite is what gives the piece its complexity. The stone’s vivid patterns create beautiful textures, but the artist’s choice of color blends it into the atmosphere and doesn’t distract the viewer from the architecture. The designs in both stones sway toward the doors of the Biology building, which creates a sense of motion and guides the viewer towards the entrance. Burton’s attention to detail and intentionality makes a simplistic design extremely dynamic.

Olivia

I love granite. I love the idea of crafting art out of a rock. Each rock is so different, yet the same. The way these chairs flow together at such a sharp angle makes it that much more appealing. Granite can have such a cold feel. It reminds me of rushing waters from a river or flowing mountains. The granite he chose, is warm and inviting. Those rosy colors make me want to take a seat. When you do, you are back to feeling cold. Doing my research on Scott Burton, I found he likes crafting furniture out of organic objects. He pulls nature and puts it in front of you in and creative way.

Scott Burton Biography

A photograph of Scott Burton.

Scott Burton was born on June 23, 1939, in Greensboro, Alabama. Burton’s baby books indicate that he was born six and a half months into his mother’s pregnancy and there was little chance of saving his life. His single mother raised him, and together they moved to Washington D.C. around 1953 (Burton, MoMA). During the mid-fifties, Burton studied art at the Washington Workshop of the Arts, where he met his friend Leon Berkowitz and his wife, Ida Fox. With the encouragement from Berkowitz, Scott participated in summer sessions at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in Provincetown, Massachusetts, from 1957 to 1959. “Burton went on to attend Goddard College of Plainfield [in Vermont], then George Washington University in Washington D.C. and took classes at Harvard University” (Burton, MoMA). In 1962, he completed his undergraduate studies at Columbia University. A year later, he earned his Master of Arts from New York University.

While Burton was in college and graduate studies, he worked at the membership desk of The Museum of Modern Art, where he became involved in the New York art and theater scene. Scott Burton became friends with playwrights, including “…Edward Albee, Terence McNally, Jerome Robbins, Lincoln Kirstein, Alex Katz, Philip Pearlstein, and others” (Burton, MoMA). In 1966, he got a job writing reviews for a visual-arts magazine called ARTNews based in New York. At the end of the 1960s, Burton became friends with influential artists and art critics, such as “…John Perreault, Vito Acconci, Eduardo Costa, and others” (Burton, MoMA). Burton put his career as a writer to the side, and the group created works of street theater, and other performance and conceptual art pieces.

“Scott Burton considered 1970 to be a turning point in his life and artistic career” (Burton, MoMA). He gave a lecture at the University of Iowa and participated in Two Evenings – a performance and installation art event. Burton staged his first tableaux called Ten Tableaux: Theater as sculpture. He also displayed his first use of furniture, Furniture/Landscape at the outdoor work installation exhibit. Throughout the 1970s, he created several performance pieces, such as  Eighteen Pieces (1971), Group Behavior Tableaux (1972), Pair Behavior Tableaux (1976), and Individual Behavior Tableaux (1980). Burton shifter his focus from performance art to outdoor sculpture in 1977 and 1978. “His first solo exhibition of sculpture was Pragmatic Structures at the Droll/Kolbert Gallery, in 1977” (Burton, MoMA). He got significant exposure at the Guggenheim, Young American Artists: 1978 Exxon National Exhibition. A year later, Burton met Max Protetch and exhibited artwork at Protetch’s gallery in Washington D.C. By 1980, he stopped creating performance pieces and centered his art around furniture sculpture, as well as joining Protetch’s gallery in New York (Burton, MoMA).

The 1980s were the zenith of Burton’s career. He started to get commissions for his artwork, site-specific furniture sculptures, and space design. A few of Burton’s most significant pieces at the time include designing Pearlstone Park in Baltimore (1985), “contribution to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Regional Center, Seattle (1983),” and co-designing the Hudson River plaza of Battery Park City and the World Financial Center in 1988 to 1989 (Burton, MoMA). He designed a furniture sculpture called Two-Parts Chairs, Right Angle Version (a Pair) in 1983, and fabricated in 1987. Burton began transitioning from interior furniture, and modern furniture design to creating “rock carved chairs and interlocking granite chairs reminiscent of minimalist sculpture” (Western).

Along with an influx of commissions, he had several exhibitions. A retrospective exhibition called Scott Burton was hoster at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1986. Burton curated the exhibition Artist’s Choice: Burton on Brancusi at the Museum of Modern Art from April 7 to July 4, 1989, which included installations of his work in the museum’s sculpture garden” (Burton, MoMA). An exhibition called Scott Burton: Sculptures 1980-89 was displayed in Stuttgart, Germany and Paris, France. Burton became extremely ill at his exhibition installation in Stuttgart and hospitalized. He died of AIDS at the age of 50 on December 29, 1989. The Museum of Modern Art held a memorial for him on March 28, 1990 (Burton, MoMA). Scott Burton was an innovative performance artist and sculptor, who transformed spaces and how people interact with the environment.

Significant Events in the 1980s

Live Aid Fundraiser

On July 13, 1985, at Wembley Stadium officially opened Liv Aid; it was a worldwide rock concert organized to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken. This event raised more than $125 million for famine relief for Africa. More than 75 acts performed, including Elton John, Queen and many more.  It is also known to be one of the largest-scale satellites link-ups and television broadcast of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast, nearly 40% of the world population.

The Fall of the Wall

The Berlin wall symbolized the lack of freedom under communism. It symbolized the Cold War and the division between communist Soviet and the Western democratic, capitalist.  On November 9, 1989, the wall came down. After the fall of the all, Berlin united for the first time after years since 1945. The Reunification of East and West German was made official on October 3, 1990.

The Eruption of Mount St. Helens

On May 18, 1980, an earthquake struck the north face Mount St. Helen in Washington state, causing one the largest landslides in recorded history (Taylor). This massive volcano was heard a hundred miles away and caused shockwaves across the surrounding landscapes. This caused the flattening forest, melting snow and ice, and generating massive mudflows. A total of 57 people lost their lives in the disaster.

Unifying Sculpture and Environment

After looking at other blog posts on WordPress, we believe that the photographs taken do not sufficiently show Burton’s intentionality when creating the Two-Parts Chairs: Right Angle Version (a Pair) and how the sculpture transforms the space. Our group used photography to accurately depict space, providing the viewer with a better understanding of how Two Parts Chairs is integrated into the surrounding environment.

Nathan used a Canon Rebel t5 to take color photos of the sculpture from several different perspectives, up close and afar. The pictures are accompanied by brief descriptions. Taking photographs from various angles allows the viewer to get a sense of the sculpture’s dimensions, texture. The photographs capture Two Parts Chairs and its environment’s fine details, such as textures and colors of rocks, brick, and concrete, as well as the Biology building. Pairing pictures of the sculpture with images of its surroundings.

Click on images to enlarge.

Credits

Initial Reactions by Olivia Stoddard and Nathan Wilkinson

Photographs for Unifying Sculpture and Environment, Scott Burton Biography, Visual Analysis by Nathan Wilkinson

Unifying Sculpture and Environment by Nathan Wilkinson and Olivia Stoddard

Significant Events in the 1980s by Olivia Stoddard

Bibliography

Allores, Carolina. “On The Art Of Scott Burton – Riot Material.” Riot Material, 10 Nov. 2017, www.riotmaterial.com/art-scott-burton/.

“’Live Aid’ Concert Raises $127 Million for Famine Relief in Africa.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 24 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/live-aid-concert.

“Live Aid.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Aid.

“React. Research. Execute!” React Research Execute, wp.wwu.edu/wwuart109/2018/11/06/22nfi-scott-burtons-two-part-chairs-right-angle-version-a-pair/.

“Remembering the Berlin Wall.” GW Today, 3 Nov. 2009, gwtoday.gwu.edu/remembering-berlin-wall.

Roseman, Harry. “Scott Burton.” A Chronicle, Harry Roseman.

Scott Burton. “Scott Burton Papers.” Scott Burton Papersin The Museum of Modern Art Archives Burton, Museum of Modern Art, 2008, www.moma.org/research-and-learning/archives/findingaids/Burtonb.html.

“Scott Burton.” Kasmin,www.kasmingallery.com/artist/scott-burton.

Taylor, Alan. “The Eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 18 May 2015, www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/05/the-eruption-of-mount-st-helens-in-1980/393557/.

“The 80s Timeline.” National Geographic, 10 Apr. 2013, www.nationalgeographic.com.au/history/the-80s-timeline.aspx.

Western Gallery. “Two-Part Chairs, Right Angle Version (a Pair).” Two-Part Chairs, Right Angle Version (a Pair) | Western Gallery, westerngallery.wwu.edu/sculpture/two-part-chairs-right-angle-version-Pair.

White, Bruce M. “Public Table.” Public Table by Scott Burton, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton University Art Museum.