Scott Burton: Shape Shift

American artist Scott Burton (1939–1989) made what he described as “sculpture in love with furniture.”

Highlighting the breadth of Burton’s innovative practice as a sculptor, performance artist and public artist, this temporary exhibition at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation will be the most comprehensive exhibition in the U.S. since his untimely death of AIDS-related illness in 1989.

The presentation will include more than 40 artworks that focus on the artist’s use of furniture and performance to express identity and explore social dynamics such as intimacy, distance, collectivity and isolation.

In addition to the artist’s sculptures, photographs, drawings and documentation of performances, the exhibition will also shed light on Burton’s important contributions to conceptual art, public art and queer art, as well as his roles as a curator and art critic.

Considering Burton’s career today, we can marvel at the prescience of his preoccupations and how newly relevant they are within the contemporary discourse.

In the spirit of Burton’s intergenerational conversations with artists, the Pulitzer has also invited contemporary artists, including Brendan Fernandes and Gordon Hall, to respond to his legacy and physically engage with Burton’s furniture works, fulfilling the artist’s intention for these artworks to be in contact with the body.