An unprecedented glimpse into the working methods and the complicated legacy of an important twentieth-century artist.
Over the course of his more than three-decade career, Scott Burton (1939–1989) made ground-breaking contributions to sculpture, performance, public art, queer art, and criticism. Responding to what he identified as a gap between art and its potential audiences, Burton became a tireless advocate for accessible and popular artworks that everyday people could use and enjoy. In keeping with this principle, he also designed performances and “sculpture furniture” to explore and orchestrate social dynamics; he was particularly interested in intimacy, distance, collectivity, and isolation.
Scott Burton: Shape Shift provides a comprehensive overview of the artist’s biography and career with texts focusing on his public artworks, performance, and innovative use of materials. Featuring more than forty full-page images of Burton’s sculpture, which is rarely published, the book also includes numerous never-before-seen images of notes, photographs, and drawings from the artist’s extensive personal archive, housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Scores and photographic documentation of newly commissioned performances on the occasion of the accompanying exhibition are also included.
Scott Burton: Shape Shift provides a comprehensive overview of the artist’s biography and career with texts focusing on his public artworks, performance, and innovative use of materials. Featuring more than forty full-page images of Burton’s sculpture, which is rarely published, the book also includes numerous never-before-seen images of notes, photographs, and drawings from the artist’s extensive personal archive, housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Scores and photographic documentation of newly commissioned performances on the occasion of the accompanying exhibition are also included.
Authors: Jess Wilcox & Heather Alexis Smith
Publisher: Yale University Press
Format: Hardback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9780300284133
Publication Date: September 2025