Ian Burn: Minimal – Conceptual Work 1965-1970

About the exhibition
This solo exhibition, described by many as long overdue, traced five pivotal years in the creative output of Ian Burn—an artist widely regarded as the godfather of Minimalist and Conceptual art in Australia. It highlighted Burn’s sustained inquiry into the rationale for producing, collecting and exhibiting works of art—an investigation that ultimately led him to explore visual solutions to the discord that exists between language and perception.

In 1965, Burn relocated to London, where he began to explore the role of language in art. Two years later, he moved to New York, where he would remain until 1977, and began working with Art & Language—a collaborative group whose members included Roger Cutforth, Joseph Kosuth and Mel Ramsden. Having worked at the centre of the early Conceptual art movement, Burn was described by Monash University Gallery director Jenepher Duncan  as possessing ‘the singular distinction of being the only Australian to be central to an internationally significant movement.’

Organised by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the exhibition was anchored by fifteen works drawn from the Gallery’s State Art Collection. These included early paintings, works incorporating glass and mirrors, and photographic sequences documenting Minimalist sculptures in New York museums.

MUMA Online Exhibition Archive
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^{Image: Ian Burn, Re-Ordered Painting 1965}