Artists Think: The Late Work of Ian Burn

About the exhibition
This exhibition brought together over forty works to survey three decades of the artistic practice of Ian Burn—an internationally recognised Conceptual artist of the 1960s whose work and writing continue to provoke critical debate in Australia.

After spending more than two decades overseas engaged in alternative cultural practices—including his involvement with Art & Language group in New York—Burn returned to Australia in 1977 and began working within the labour rights movement in Sydney. During this time, he reflected on the dilemmas of self-representation through both critical writing and occasional artmaking. Burn passed away in 1993, drowning accidentally while on a family holiday.

The exhibition focused on works produced in the final four years of the artist’s life, which explored the landscape genre and the shifting boundaries between amateur and professional artistic production.

A ‘documentary wall’ of printed material from 1969 to 1993 showcased the extraordinary breadth of Burn’s involvement in events, organisations and publications, underscoring the political context of his practice.

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^{Image: Ian Burn, A Landscape Is Not… 1992, watercolour on bromide reproduction, Perspex, wood, 1 of 7 related works (each 31.6 x 36.8 x 11 cm)}