Burt Barr
I began work in February 1997, making a video-installation piece, titled The Long Dissolve... during the summer, 1997, I made a work titled Rain Piece... A third piece, made in October 1997, is titled Dolly Shot Twice... I thank the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts in helping with the realization of these works. It was a very good year.
- Burt Barr, January 9, 1998
Biography
Burt Barr created simple but humorous videos that explore conceptual aspects of film. Barr employed traditional cinematic techniques and the single take.
Barr's early video works were shown at film festivals in Montreal, Berlin, Toronto, San Sebastian, Melbourne, and Rotterdam, as well as on PBS. He exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally with solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center in Istanbul. Other installations of his work have taken place at Sikkema Jenkins Gallery, The Kitchen, Yale University Art Gallery, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, ZKM Center for Art, Media in Karlsruhe, Germany, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and MUDAM in Luxembourg.
Following his 1996 FCPA-support, Barr was the recipient of an award from the The Andrea Frank Foundation (1999), and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1998). Previous to receiving his 1996 FCPA grant, Barr was the recipient of grants from The Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities (1984), WGBH/WNET (1987), Brooklyn Arts Council (1989), the National Endowment for the Arts (1983, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1993), the New York State Council on the Arts (1986,1989,1996), and The American Film Institute (1992).
Barr served as an Instructor of Film and Video Projects at the Pratt Institute, an Instructor of Creative Projects at New York University, and was a Visiting Artist at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He lectured at Cornell University, Ohio University, Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons School of Design, the Museum of Modern Art, Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, CAPC Musée in Bordeaux, Anthology Film Archives, and Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis.
