In front of Western’s biology building, flanking both sides of the front entrance sit two identical granite chairs. Minimalist in form and with clean and simple lines, they offer a seat for any passerby and act as an object to observe appreciate. In fact, they almost call you to sit down and enjoy viewing the activities on the plaza, or simply to rest. Completed in 1987, but installed on Western Washington University’s campus in 2005, the pair of chairs are one piece in a collection of public art made by artist and art critic Scott Burton.

Burton was born in 1939 in Greensboro Alabama, and attended classes at George Washington, Harvard, Columbia University, eventually completing a graduate program at New York University. Out of school Burton began work at the Museum of Modern Art, and writing for art reviews. From there he became a prominent art critic in New York City, and achieved the position of senior editor at Art in America.

Though he is mostly known now for his public furniture pieces, Scott Burton entered the art world through performance art. Early in his career he would find furniture left on the street and construct tableaux with the pieces, interacting with the structures and exploring the relationship between the human body and furniture. These “Behavior Tableaux” performance pieces were the beginning of his focus on what furniture could be and blurring the line between function and design. After his time at Art in America Scott Burton began to shift to sculptural art, a natural change to Burton considering he once described performance as “sculpture as theater.”

Photograph of a “Behavior Tableaux” performance

Producing sculptures in a utilitarian modernist style while drawing inspiration from art history such as art deco design, Russian constructivism, German Bauhuas, and Dutch de Stijl, Burton’s works had basic form, but with an attention to shape, surface and proportion. Burton’s sculptures are functional and reductive designs that don’t call attention to themselves, as art historian David Getsy says, “that means work that you sometimes walk by…or use without even knowing it is art.” His interest in raw materials is also apparent in many of his sculptures, which mostly consist of stainless steel, stone, concrete, or wood.

Western’s sculpture was created during the 1980’s during the later years of Burton’s life. In this time other artists, such as Richard Serra, were approaching art in a similar way. There was an interest in interaction with art, and to push the boundaries of sculpture and other forms. Although Burton’s work and ideas are original, he might have been influenced or inspired at the time by others creating work’s similar to his.

Burton was mainly focused on the double meaning form could hold, and how art could have function and serve the public, stating it should “place itself not in front of, but around, behind, underneath (literally) the audience in an operational capacity.” Erasing the divide between people and art, he began to be commissioned for public installations, often chairs and benches, for cities all over the U.S. in the 80’s. Wanting to go past a single feeling or idea of an artist, Burton focused on the personal interaction someone could have with a sculpture through the act of simply sitting on it.

”Scott was as singular and unique as a person as he was as an artist. His fiercely laconic work destroyed the boundaries between furniture and sculpture, between private delectation and public use and radically altered the way we see many 20th-century masters, including Gerrit Rietveld and Brancusi.”

– Art Historian Robert Rosenblum

Scott Burton passed away in 1989, but his prominence in the art world and large body of work leaves an impression on any who interact with his art.

Credit:

Video footage, video editing, and research: Grace Kennedy

Photographs, research, and article: Estelle Nelson

Scott Burton portrait: International Sculpture Center (https://blog.sculpture.org/2013/10/28/scott-burton/)

“Behavior Tableaux” photograph: Guggenheim (https://www.guggenheim.org/performance)

Citations:

Smith, Roberta. “Scott Burton, Sculptor Whose Art Verged on Furniture, Is Dead at 50.” The New York Times 1 Jan. 1990: n. Print.

Princenthal, Nancy. “High Style, Clear Form, Sharp Edge.” Art in America 11 Mar. 2013. Web.

Flood, Richard. “Scott Burton.” In Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole: Walker Art Center Collections, edited by Joan Rothfuss and Elizabeth Carpenter. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 2005.

Lill, Jonathan. “Scott Burton Papers.” Scott Burton Papers in The Museum of Modern Art Archives Burton. The Museum of Modern Art, 2008. Web.

“Scott Burton.” 7 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy. Artsy, n.d. Web.

“Pair of Two-Part Chairs, Obtuse Angle.” Scott Burton: Pair of Two-Part Chairs. Whitney Museum of American Art, n.d. Web.