Rudy Burckhardt

Rudy Burckhardt (April 6, 1914 – August 1, 1999) was a Swiss-American filmmaker, and photographer, known for his photographs of the hand-painted billboards that began to dominate the American landscape in the nineteen-forties and fifties.[1][2][3]

Rudy Burckhardt
Born(1914-04-06)April 6, 1914
Basel, Switzerland
DiedAugust 1, 1999(1999-08-01) (aged 85)
Searsmont, Maine
NationalitySwiss
CitizenshipAmerican
OccupationPhotographer; Filmmaker
Years active1935-1999

Life

Burckhardt was a member of the Swiss patrician Burckhardt family. He discovered photography as a medical student in London. He left medicine to pursue photography in the 1930s. He immigrated to New York City in 1935.[4] Between 1934 and 1939, he traveled to Paris, New York and Haiti making photographs mostly of city streets and experimenting with short 16mm films. While stationed in Trinidad in the Signal Corps from 1941-1944, he filmed the island's residents. In 1947, he joined the Photo League in New York City. Burckhardt married painter Yvonne Jacquette whom he collaborated with throughout their 40-year marriage. During the mid-Fifties he worked with Joseph Cornell on "The Aviary", "Nymphlight", "A Fable For Fountains", and "What Mozart Saw On Mulberry Street".[5] He taught filmmaking and painting at the University of Pennsylvania from 1967 to 1975. He is the great-uncle of author Andreas Burckhardt.

Burckhardt ended his life by drowning in the lake on his property.[6][7]

Recent exhibitions (selection)

References
  1. http://www.nyss.org/exhibitions/rudy-burckhardt-maine/
  2. Glueck, Grace (May 30, 2003). "ART IN REVIEW; Rudy Burckhardt". The New York Times.
  3. Francis, Mark, ed. (2005). Pop. London: Phaidon Press Limited. p. 45.
  4. http://www.vincentkatz.com/criticism.htm
  5. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-rudy-burckhardt-1112344.html
  6. http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/reviews/oisteanu/oisteanu8-24-04.asp
  7. Smith, Roberta (August 4, 1999). "Rudy Burckhardt, 85, Photographer and Filmmaker, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved October 29, 2014.
  8. Fotostiftung Schweiz
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