Victor Burgin (born 1941) is a British artist and writer.
Early life and education
Burgin was born in Sheffield in England.[1] He studied art at the Royal College of Art, in London, from 1962 to 1965 (A.R.C.A., 1st Class, 1965) before going to the United States to study at Yale University (M.F.A. 1967).[1]
Work
Burgin first came to attention as a conceptual artist in the late 1960s[2][3] and at that time was most noted for being a political photographer of the left, who would fuse photographs and words in the same picture. He has worked with photography and film, calling painting "the anachronistic daubing of woven fabrics with coloured mud".[4] His work is influenced by a variety of theorists and philosophers, most especially thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, Henri Lefebvre, André Breton, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes. (European Graduate School Staff Page[5])
Academic career
Burgin taught at Trent Polytechnic from 1967 to 1973 and at the School of Communication, Polytechnic of Central London from 1973 to 1988. From 1988 to 2001 Burgin lived and worked in San Francisco.[6] He taught in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he became Professor Emeritus of History of Consciousness. In 2000 he was Robert Gwathmey Chair in Art and Architecture, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York. From 2001 to 2006 he was Millard Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is currently Professor of Visual Studies, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.
Honours and awards
In 1986, Burgin was nominated for the Turner Prize for his exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Kettle's Yard Gallery in Cambridge and for a collection of his theoretical writings (The End of Art Theory) and a monograph of his visual work (Between).[7] In 2005 he received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Sheffield Hallam University (Hon. DUniv).[1] In 2010 he received a Doctorat Honoris Causa from the Université de Liège.
Public commissions
1976 'What does possession mean to you?,' color poster, 1000 copies posted in the streets in the center of Newcastle upon Tyne, summer; other poster works, various dates.
1987 Fall, Video-wall (36 monitors), two-minute videodisk programme, Mississauga Shopping Mall, and other locations, Toronto.
1989 Original print for ‘Estampes et Revolution: 200 Ans Après,’ Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, France (100 sets of prints, commissioned from an international selection of artists, and distributed throughout France as part of the Bicentennial Celebration of the French Revolution).
1993 Poster for 'Images pour la lutte contre le sida', Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, France/Agence française de lutte contre le sida: national poster campaign with posters commissioned from an international selection of 35 artists.
1993 Venise, 30 min video, Ville de Marseille, France.
1994 Design for permanent video installation for the Hotel Furkablick, Furkapasshöhe, Switzerland.
1994 Permanent video installation for the Médiatheque d'Orléans, Ville d'Orléans, France.
2004 Restored, Permanent video installation for London Symphony Orchestra, St. Luke's, Old Street, London.
2021 'Division/Revision', poster project curated by Uta Kögelsberger, Newcastle University
Publications
Books by Burgin
1973 Work and Commentary, London, Latimer
1976 Two Essays on Art, Photography and Semiotics, London, Robert Self Publications
1977 Victor Burgin, Eindhoven, Stedelijk van abbemuseum
1977 Family, New York, Lapp Princess, in association with Printer Matter
1982 Hôtel Latône, Calais, Musée de Calais
1982 Thinking Photography, Victor Burgin (ed.), [Burgin: Introduction, three essays, bibliography], Macmillan, London and Basingstoke, and Humanities Press International, New Jersey (1982), reprinted 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987 (twice), 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994
1986 Formations of Fantasy, (co-edited with Donald, J. and Kaplan, C.), Methuen, London
1986 Between, Basil Blackwell, Oxford and New York
1986 The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity, Macmillan, London and Basingstoke, and Humanities Press International, New Jersey (1986), reprinted 1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1996
1995 Japanese translation of The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity, Tokyo, Keiso Shobo
1988 Victor Burgin: Office at Night and Danaïdes/Dames, Charlotte, North Carolina, Knight Gallery, City of Charlotte
1988 Victor Burgin, Opere 1982–1986, Milan, Le Case d'Arte
1989 Taideteorian Loppu, Helsinki, Suomen Valokuvataiteen Museon Säätiö, Literos, collection of essays by Burgin in Finnish translation
1991 Passages, Lille, Musée d'art moderne de la Communaté Urbaine de Lille, Villeneuve d'Ascq
1995 History Painting, Buffalo, University at Buffalo Art Gallery/Research Center in Art + Culture
1996 Some Cities, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, and London, Reaktion
1996 In/Different Spaces: place and memory in visual culture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press
1997 Szerelmes Levelek/Love Letters, Mücsarnok Museum, Budapest
2000 Victor Burgin: Robert Gwathmey Lectures, New York, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art 1997 Venise, London, Black Dog Publishing
2000 Shadowed, London, Architectural Association
2001 Victor Burgin, Barcelona, Fundació Antoni Tàpies
2009 Situational Aesthetics, Leuven University Press
2013 Palmanova, Victor Burgin, Teresa Castro, Evgenia Giannouri, Lucia Monteiro, Clara Schulmann, Form[e]s, Paris
2014 Five Pieces for Projection, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Seigen
2016 Scripts, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva
2016 Barthes/Burgin: Research Notes for an Exhibition, Ryan Bishop and Sunil Manghani (eds), Edinburgh University Press
2018 The Camera – Essence and Apparatus, Mack, London
2019 Mandarin, Juxta, Milan
2019 Afterlife, Galerie Thomas Zander & Walther König
Books about Burgin
2014 Projective – Essays on the works of Victor Burgin, Victor Burgin, Gülru Çakmak, David Campany, Homay King, David Rodowick, Anthony Vidler, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva
2014 ''Projectif – Essais sur l'oeuvre de Victor Burgin, French translation of Projective
2017 Victor Burgin's Parzival in Leuven – Reflections on the "Uncinematic", Stéphane Symons (ed.), Leuven University Press
2019 Seeing Degree Zero, Barthes/Burgin and Political Aesthetics, Ryan Bishop and Sunil Manghani (eds), Edinburgh University Press
2020 Alexander Streitberger, Psychical Realism – The work of Victor Burgin, Leuven University Press
