{"id":1834,"date":"2011-07-14T02:01:41","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T02:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=1834"},"modified":"2012-11-30T14:27:09","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T19:27:09","slug":"dennis-burton-word-magic-%e2%80%93-toronto-1970%e2%80%99s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=1834","title":{"rendered":"DENNIS BURTON \/ Word Magic \u2013 Toronto 1970\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ashley Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Six Questions, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 inches.\u00a0Courtesy of Christopher Cutts Gallery<\/p>\n

An exhibition in conjunction with THIS IS PARADISE, Mocca, 2011
\nChristopher Cutts Gallery,
\nJune 25 – August 31, 2011<\/p>\n

A sign of cultural maturity in developed societies is the wholehearted support and celebration of its artists. Their contribution is recognized as \u2018cultural capital\u2019, to be nurtured and exported, whether as art objects or social ideas. Value is attached and upheld by institutions that generate knowledge and shows about that product. A case in point is the current Abstract Expressionist exhibition at the AGO, orchestrated by MOMA (NY).<\/p>\n

THIS IS PARADISE seeks to re-present the 80\u2019s art scene in Queen Street West and is linked to Dennis Burton\u2019s show, \u2018Word Magic\u2019 at the Christopher Cutts Gallery, because Burton taught some of the artists in the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s at The New School of Art and Art\u2019s Sake. That said, it\u2019s an extremely tenuous connection artistically because the artists in THIS IS PARADISE represent mainly figuration, exemplified by the group Chromazone, whereas Burton\u2019s art and teaching runs the gamut of modernism. A cursory glance at Burton\u2019s extraordinary contribution both as an artist and as an educator makes one wonder why the institutional acknowledgement of these decades is so understated. The conjunction highlights the immaturity of this society.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Alchemy, 1978, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inches.\u00a0Courtesy of Christopher Cutts Gallery<\/p>\n

Burton uses words like a mechanic greasing an axle, fluidly and with some abandon. They lose their form and meaning, becoming sound poems generating new meanings through chance juxtapositions. Duchamp is \u2018in the room\u2019. There is an innate beauty to Burton\u2019s writing style, which oscillates between making shapes out of words to laboriously etching text into every available space on the page. He loves words sensuously.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jingle bells circa 1965, on paper, 18 x 16 inches
\nCourtesy of Christopher Cutts Gallery<\/p>\n

There are some very absorbing framed texts in which Burton answers questions put by Rae Johnson and Brian Burnett about his experiences after graduating from OCA. It\u2019s astounding to learn that the fine-arts program was abandoned by OCA in 1956 in favour of design elements. This galvanized Burton and his colleagues in 1965 to begin teaching art at The New School of Art and later Art\u2019s Sake. There is something heroic in Burton\u2019s efforts to survive monetarily and still teach students to become practicing artists. He is apparently remembered for his erudite lectures that synthesized knowledge from all spheres. Uniquely, his colleagues included artists actively working at their profession like Gordon Rayner, Robert Markle and others who all achieved some local notoriety. The schools sound like hotbeds of creativity and fun, with the Artist\u2019s Jazz Band performing alongside theatre events. There are taverns like the Cameron House that became cultural meeting places. The roles of galleries such as Av Isaacs and Dorothy Cameron are mentioned. Censorship rears its head when police confiscate works and the artists go on trial but charges are later dismissed. In this period Burton made erotic images of women in a series called Garterbeltmania. They seem quite inoffensive and rather beautiful now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Stripe Streak, 1977, acrylic on canvas, 49 x 98 inches. Courtesy of Christopher Cutts Gallery<\/p>\n

The paintings in this show remind me of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns\u2019 work except Burton\u2019s are more text based. They share an anomalous position in my mind as not quite \u2018Pop Art\u2019 yet vital in their Dadaistic \u2018clawing back\u2019 meaning from the excesses of Abstract Expressionist theory. Burton\u2019s words have a humanity that reaches out, as in his painting Six Questions, which ends in an expression of love for \u2026 perhaps the viewer. In Stripe Streak he plays with meaning and action ironically. The self-importance of post painterly abstraction is gently and humorously debunked.<\/p>\n

Glancing at Burton\u2019s timeline on the ccca.ca website, one is left wishing to see a more comprehensive retrospective of the era and his art. It would be a pity if this history just lapses into obscurity. Fifty-odd years have already passed so it\u2019s about time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ashley Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n

A sign of cultural maturity in developed societies is the wholehearted support and celebration of its artists. Their contribution is recognized as \u2018cultural capital\u2019, to be nurtured and exported, whether as art objects or social ideas. Value is attached and upheld by institutions that generate knowledge and shows about that product.<\/p>\n

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