Farewell to Chris Burden, "Protean Conceptual Artist" died today from malignant melanoma.
This has hit me hard. Not even 70 years old. If you know of his work, perhaps it is his controversial performance art: deliberately shot in the arm, by a friend. Nailed to his VW Bug. Laying under a tarp on the freeway. Pushing live wires into his chest. Locking himself in a school locker for five days.
Or maybe you are familiar with his sculptural work. LACMA has two crowd-pleasers: Metropolis (every boy and girl's dream Hot Wheels installation, which is oddly soothing in its cacophonous din and perpetual movement) and Urban Lights, his outdoor installation of genuine historical Los Angeles street lights.
Or maybe it is his mid-career work, such as All the Submarines of the United States of America. Or LAPD Uniforms.
Maybe you are aware of the television commercials he made in the 1970s, TV Hijack.
The New Museum's Extreme Measures exhibition release has a good overview of his oeuvre for anyone wanting to know a bit more and experience the scope of his work.
My first introduction to Chris Burden was when my best high school friend took an art class in "Performance" at UCLA in the early 1980s. Chris Burden was her professor. I returned home for summer vacation from my much more traditional art courses at an east coast college, and attended the performance final projects for much of her class. All on site, at different sites, ranging from the plagiarized to the absurd to the provocative. I had no idea what to make of it as a 19-year-old, but it did pry my mind loose a little bit.
He was still driving the VW bug with the nail holes in it.