Ian Burn
Ian Burn (29 December 1939 – 29 September 1993) was an Australian conceptual artist. He was a member of the Art and Language group that flourished in the 1970s. Also an art writer, curator, and scholar.
Ian Burn
- Name
- Ian Burn
- Born
- 29 December 1939
- Birthplace
- Geelong, Australia
- Died
- 29 September 1993
- Place of death
- Bawley Point, Australia
- Known for
- Concept art
- Nationality
- Australia
- Occupation
- artist · journalist · painter · illustrator · writer · exhibition curator
- Movements
- conceptual art · Art & Language
- Languages
- English
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Documentary summary
Ian Burn (29 December 1939 – 29 September 1993) was an Australian conceptual artist. He was a member of the Art and Language group that flourished in the 1970s. Also an art writer, curator, and scholar.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
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wikidata · Q1655457 · wikipedia · Ian Burn
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Ian Burn • Born — 29 December 1939 • Birthplace — Geelong, Australia • Died — 29 September 1993 • Place of death — Bawley Point, Australia • Known for — Concept art
Biography
Biography
Ian Burn was born on 29 December 1939 in Geelong, Australia. Burn studied art at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne. He became affiliated with the Art and Language collective when he moved to London in 1964 and remained a part of the group when he moved to New York City in 1967. In 1977, Burn returned to Australia to teach at Sydney University. Ian Burn drowned on 29 September 1993 while swimming in rough seas at Bawley Point, New South Wales.
Notable work
Notable work
"Xerox Book", 1968 - 100 iterative copies of a blank sheet of white paper on a Xerox 720, arranged in a book in the order they were created. The final pages in the series of copies were filled with black forms that had arisen slowly from the 'error' of the machine. In 1969 Ian Burn, Roger Cutforth and Mel Ramsden proposed one of the first Australian exhibitions of conceptual art, shown at Pinacotheca to which they posted the entire contents of their exhibition in a small box. Ramsden had studied with Burn at the National Gallery School and was included in The Field.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1939
Ian Burn born at Geelong.
1993
Ian Burn died at New South Wales.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Geelong.
Birth place
New South Wales.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Burn, Ian, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2014
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2014
- Ian Burn 1939–1993, Australian Journal of Art, 1994
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 1994
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1655457: Ian Burn
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Ian Burn”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Ian Burn's Conceptualism. Art in America. 85. 12. December 1997.
- 2."Ian Burn, 53, Artist, Writer, and Founder of an Artists' Union" New York Times 9 October 1993 accessed 11/13/08 https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0D81039F93AA35753C1A965958260
- 3.Centre for Australian Art,
- 4.Meyer, Ursula, Conceptual Art. Plume, 1st edition 19 February 1972
- 5.Oxford University Press. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 2011-10-31. 10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00148714.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Burn, Ian, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2014Crossref registry
Institutional witnessscholarly publication
Ian Burn 1939–1993, Australian Journal of Art, 1994Crossref registry
Institutional witnessreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q1655457: Ian BurnWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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