Edward John BurraCBE (29 March 1905 – 22 October 1976) was an English painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, best known for his depictions of the urban underworld, black culture and the Harlem scene of the 1930s.
Biography
Early life
Burra was born on 29 March 1905 at his grandmother's house in Elvaston Place, London,[1] to Henry Curteis Burra, J.P., of Springfield Lodge, Rye, East Sussex, and Ermentrude Anne (née Robinson Luxford). His father, of a Westmorland family traceable back to the fourteenth century,[2][3] was a barrister and later Chairman of East Sussex County Council.[1] Edward attended preparatory school at Northaw Place in Potters Bar but in 1917 suffered from pneumonia and had to be withdrawn from school and home-educated.[1] Burra took art classes with a Miss Bradley in Rye in 1921, then studied at Chelsea School of Art until 1923, and from 1923 to 1925 at the Royal College of Art under drawing tutors Randolph Schwabe and Raymond Coxon.[1]
Early career
In March 1925, while travelling in Italy, Burra suffered with rheumatic fever. He met Paul Nash in the summer of 1925. Burra visited Paris with William Chappell in October 1925.[1] In 1926, Burra travelled with his family to visit his sister in Florence, Italy, and also visited Siena and Paris. In 1927, he visited Paris with Lucy Norton and Sophie Fedorovitch, who painted his portrait, now lost.[1] Burra was introduced to Oliver Brown of the Leicester Galleries in August 1927; in September–October, Burra and Chappell travelled to the south of France; in December, Burra exhibited at the New English Art Club.[1] Nash offered to teach Burra wood engraving in February 1928; Burra was commissioned by Crawfords to design vehicle advertising signs, which were rejected, in May 1928.[1] Burra visited Toulon with Chappell, Irene Hodgkins, Barbara Ker-Seymer, Brian Howard and Anthony Powell. From October to December 1928, he stayed in Paris with Chappell, Fedorovitch, Frederick Ashton, Cedric Morris, Arthur Lett-Haines, Arthur Mahoney and John Banting. Burra visited dance halls and music halls on the rue de Lappe.[1]
Burra's first solo show was held at the Leicester Galleries in 1929. In May 1929, he visited Paris with Chappell, Ashton, Fedorovitch, Mahoney and Birgit Batholin. His sister Betsy died of meningitis in August 1929. He visited Scotland with his mother in September 1929. In October 1929, Burra exhibited with the London Group; woodblock prints were shown at the Society of Wood-Engravers exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in London. In January 1930, he began to make collages with Paul Nash. Later that year, he travelled with Paul and Margaret Nash to Paris and the South of France.[1] In October 1931, he exhibited in Recent Developments in British Painting, with John Armstrong, Nash, Edward Wadsworth and Ben Nicholson, at Arthur Tooth & Sons in London.[1] Ashton's ballet A Day in a Southern Port (Rio Grande) opened at the Savoy, London in November 1931 with sets and costumes by Burra.[1] He was a member of Unit One in 1933 and showed with the English Surrealists later in the 1930s.
Later life
Burra travelled widely, and many influences are at play in his works, which were usually watercolour on a large scale in strong colours. During World War Two, when it became impossible to travel, he also became involved in designing scenery and costumes for ballet, opera and theatre including Miracle in the Gorbals and became very successful in that field. His major religious painting, The Mocking of Christ (c.1952), is held by the University of Dundee Museum Services.[4] He declined associate membership of the Royal Academy in 1963,[5] but accepted a CBE in 1971.[5] The Tate Gallery held a retrospective of his work in 1973. In conjunction with the exhibition at Tate, the Arts Council of Great Britain produced a documentary about his life and work, Edward Burra.[6][7] All the footage of the interview with Burra conducted for this film was assembled into a documentary in 1981, The Burra Interview,[8] in which he avers that "Nothing matters" and praises Yorkshire because "it's nice and bare".[8]
Death
After breaking his hip in 1974, his health declined sharply and he died in Hastings in 1976. The Tate Gallery Archive holds considerable materials relating to Burra, including his letters.[9]
At the Sotheby's Evill/Frost sale in June 2011, Burra’s Zoot Suits sold for £2,057,250, breaking a record set for the artist earlier in the evening when The Common Stair, from 1929, sold for £881,250.[13]
The first major museum exhibition of Burra's work for more than 25 years was held at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester from 22 October 2011 to 19 February 2012.[14] It was accompanied by a new monograph on the artist by the curator, Simon Martin.[1]
On 24 October 2011, the BBC aired an hour-long documentary, I Never Tell Anybody Anything: The Life and Art of Edward Burra, in which the art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon chronicled the life of Burra.[15]
The documentary follows Burra from his native Rye to the Paris nightlife spots he loved and the jazz clubs of prohibition-era New York and the war-torn landscapes of the Spanish Civil War and back to England during the Blitz. It shows how Burra's increasingly disturbing and surreal work deepened and matured as he experienced at first hand some of the most tragic events of the century. Through letters and interviews with those who knew him, it presents a portrait of a highly unusual and gifted British artist.[15]
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
1929, April – Leicester Galleries, London
1932, May – Leicester Galleries, London
1937, May – Springfield Museum of Art, Massachusetts, USA
1942, November – Redfern Gallery, London
1947, June – Leicester Galleries, London
1949, July – Leicester Galleries, London
1955, January – Magdalene Sothmann Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Retrospective)
1955, April – Swetzoff Gallery, Boston, USA
1956, October – Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA
1971, July – Treadwell Gallery, London (Woodcuts 1928-9)
1971, October – Hamet Gallery, London (Drawings of 1920s and 1930s)
1973, May – Tate Gallery, London (Retrospective)
1977, May – Lefevre Gallery, London (Memorial Retrospective Exhibition)
1977, October – Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, and tour to Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, and Sunderland Public Library
1980, March – Lefevre Gallery, London
1980, April – Anthony D'Offay, London (Early Works)
1982, April – Lefevre Gallery, London (Paintings 1975-6)
1936, December – Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
1937, May – Unity of Artists for Peace, Democracy and Cultural Development, Artists International Association, London
1938, January – Exposition internationale du Surréalisme, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
1939, July – British Painters, New York World's Fair, USA, and North American Tour
1940, June – Surrealism Today, Zwemmer Gallery, London
1951, May – Sixty Paintings for '51, Arts Council (Festival of Britain), London
1957, October – Contemporary British Art, Paris, France
1959, November – Three Contemporary English Artists (with Derrick Greaves and Hubert Dalwood), Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
1965 – The English Eye, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, USA, London
1978, January – Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, Hayward Gallery, London
1982, February – A Sense of Place: Edward Burra and Paul Nash, Grey Art Gallery, New York, USA
1987 – British Art in the Twentieth Century, Royal Academy of Art, London
1997 – Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance, Hayward Gallery, London
2001, February – Watercolour, Tate Britain, London
Ballet, opera and theatre productions designed by Burra
A Day in a Southern Port (Rio Grande), Camargo Society, Savoy Theatre, London, 29 November 1931
Barbarau, Vic-Wells Ballet, Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, 17 April 1936
Miracle in the Gorbals, Sadler's Wells Ball, Princes Theatre, London, 26 October 1944
Carmen, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 14 January 1947
Don Juan, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 25 November 1948
Don Quixote, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 20 February 1950
Canterbury Prologue (the ballet was previewed under the title Surprise Ballet, Royal Hall, Harrogate, 19 July 1951), Ballet Rambert, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, 30 July 1951; King's Theatre, Hammersmith, London, 15 October 1951
Simply Heavenly, Adelphi Theatre, London, 20 May 1958[1]
Books illustrated by Burra
Lee, Laurie, The Voyage of Magellan: A Dramatic Chronicle for Radio, London: John Lehmann Ltd, 1948
The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament: With Drawings by Contemporary Artists. Authorized King James Version of 1611, London: Oxford University Press, 1968 (Burra illustrated "The Book of Judith")
Poe, Edgar Allan, The Tell-Tale Heart, London: John Lehmann Ltd, 1948
Ramuz, C. F., The Triumph of Death, Routledge, London, 1946
Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, London: Paul Elek (Camden Classics), 1948
Wolfe, Humbert, ABC of the Theatre, London: Cresset Press, 1932[1]
