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Since the late 1960s Victor Burgin’s work has established him as both a highly influential artist and a renowned theorist of the still and moving image.Burgin first came to prominence in the late 1960s as one of the originators of Conceptual Art. In the 1970s his work consisted mainly of large framed photographic sequences, involving printed texts either juxtaposed with or superimposed on the image. At the beginning of the 1990s he turned towards digital video, but video from the point-of-view of photography – for example, Burgin is particularly interested in the relation between stasis and movement. As the historian and critic Stephen Bann has written: ‘this progressive exploitation of new technologies is itself fairly uninteresting compared with the remarkable consistency of the underlying themes and propositions of his work’. (Stephen Bann: Victor Burgin’s Critical Topography, in Relocating, Bristol, Arnolfini, p. 50)
The philosopher Henri Bergson notes: ‘Perception is never a simple contact of the mind with the object present; it is completely impregnated with memory-images which complete and interpret it.’ Throughout Burgin’s work there is a constant attention to this space ‘between’ the viewer and the object – to the ‘real’ world as seen through the prism of narrative, memory and fantasy.
His works are in the collections of renowned museums such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate in London.
Born 1941 in Sheffield, England.
Lives and works in Somerset, UK and Paris, France.
Studies of Painting and Philosophy, The Royal College of Art, London, UK
Studies of Painting, Sculpture and Philosophy, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Lecturer, Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, UK
Senior Lecturer, then Professor, Department of Film and Photography, Polytechnic of Central London, UK
Professor of Art History, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA
Professor of History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA
Millard Professor of Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
Emeritus Millard Chair of Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
Doctorat Honoris Causa, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
Doctor of Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK (Hon. DUniv)
Robert Gwathmey Chair in Art and Architecture, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, USA
Soros Foundation Center for Culture and Communication, Budapest, Hungary
Artist in Residence, I.ME.RE.C (Institut Méditerranéen de Recherche et de Création), Marseille, France
International Artist in Residence, Film in the Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
Artist in Residence, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Adelaide, Australia
Distinguished Visiting Scholar, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, USA
Artist in Residence, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Picker Professor, Colgate University, New York, USA
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Fellow, Berlin, Germany
US/UK Bicentennial Arts Exchange Fellow, New York, USA
Victor Burgin. (Places), Centre Photographique d’Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault, France
Victor Burgin. That, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
Victor Burgin, Zander Paris, France (upcoming opening exhibition of the new gallery venue)
Victor Burgin. Island Flight, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Victor Burgin. Voyage to Italy, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany
Victor Burgin. Some Cities, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Victor Burgin. Prairie, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, Chicago USA
Victor Burgin. Forms of Telling, Museum für Gegenwartkunst Siegen, Siegen, Germany
Victor Burgin. A Sense of Place, University of Westminster, London, UK
Victor Burgin. US 77, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Victor Burgin. Three decades, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany
Dovedale, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Victor Burgin. Hôtel D., Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France
Victor Burgin. US 77 et The Little House, Fondation Brownstone, Paris, France
Victor Burgin. Travaux 1970-1984, Centre Régional de la Photographie Nord Pas-de- Calais, Douchy- les-Mines, France
Victor Burgin. Alle otto. Solito posto & Voyage to Italy, Galleria Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy
Victor Burgin. Alle otto. Solito posto & Voyage to Italy, Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
Victor Burgin. Nietzsche’s Paris and other Works, Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany
La Cinquième Promenade et Autres Oeuvres, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
Fogliazzi, Galerie Art & Essai, Université Rennes 2 – Haute Bretagne, Rennes, France
Victor Burgin. Voyage to Italy, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, Canada
Victor Burgin. Voyage to Italy, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Listen to Britain, Cordoaria Nacional, Torreão Nascente, LisboaPhoto, Lisbon, Portugal; Cornerhouse, Manchester and Norwich Gallery, Norwich, UK
Arnolfini, Bristol, England Watergate, Matt’s Gallery, London, UK
Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain
Architectural Association, London, UK
Weimar 99 Cultural Festival, Weimar, Germany
Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria
Mücsarnok Museum, Budapest, Hungary
University at Buffalo Art Gallery/Research Center in Art + Culture, Buffalo, USA
Center for Research in Contemporary Art, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA
Musée d’art moderne Villeneuve d’Ascq, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
Film in the Cities, St. Paul, Minnesota
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK
Orchard Gallery, Derry, Northern Ireland
Albert and Vera List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Illinois, USA
Impressions Gallery of Photography, York, UK
Zwiczek Polskich Artsow Fotografickow, Warsaw, Poland
DAAD Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK
Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
2024 – 2025
The 80s Photographing Britain, Tate Britain, London, UK
2023 – 2024
This Is Me, This Is You. The Eva Felten Photography Collection, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany
Objects of Desire: Photography and the Language of Advertising, Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art (LACMA), USA
Emotion and Structure, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Enfermement, Musée d’art et d’histoire de Saint Denis, Paris
Barthes / Burgin, The Henry Moore Foundation, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, UK
(Mis)Understanding Photography – Works and Manifestos, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
fALSEfAKES – VRAIFAUXSEMBLANTS, Centre de la Photographie, Geneva, Switzerland
Light Years. Conceptual art and the photograph, 1964-1977, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Year of Cooperation, Broadway 1602, New York, USA
Beyond Corrupted Eye, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Malerei in Fotografie, Staedel Museum, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Spirits of Internationalism, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerps, Belgium
Underwood, Galerie 1900-2000, Paris
After the Gold Rush, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Hotel-Dieu, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
CUT, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Lives and Works in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
ATLAS, Museo National Centro de arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (travelled to ZKM, Karlsruhe and Deichtorhallen / Sammlung Harald Falckenberg, Hamburg, Germany)
WAREHOUSE#2 Victor Burgin “Love Stories #2”, WAREHOUSE, Cologne, Germany
Hotel-Dieu, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
The 70s. Experience and Documentation in Everyday Life, PhotoEspaña 2009, Madrid, Spain and Rotterdam, Netherlands
Expérimentations photographiques en Europe des années 20 à nos jours, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
No Such Thing as Society. Photography in Britain 1967-1987, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
Seeing Double (with Lothar Baumgarten, Anthony McCall, Larry Sultan / Mike Mandel, Mark Thompson), Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Jedermann Collection, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Einführung in die Kunstgeschichte, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, Germany
The Last Days of the British Underground 1978 – 1988, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
Panic Attack! Art in the Punk Years, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK
Erblätterte Identitäten, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig, Germany
The Secret Public, Kunstverein München, Munich, Germany
Erblätterte Identitäten, Stadthaus Ulm, Germany
Piktogramme. Die Einsamkeit der Zeichen, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany
Kontexte der Fotografie, Kunstverein Siegen, Siegen, Germany
The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography, 1960-1982, Miami Art Central, Miami, USA
La Photographie à l’épreuve, Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole, Saint-Ètienne, France
Projet Cône Sud, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mysteriös, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, Austria
L’Art au Futur Anterieur, Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France
The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography 1960-1982, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Eblouissement, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
Artists’ Choice, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
Rapture: Art’s eduction by Fashion since 1970, Barbican Gallery, London, UK
Blast to Freeze: Britische Kunst im 20.Jahrhundert, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany
Sans commune mesure, Image et texte dans l’art actuel, Musée d’art moderne Lille, France
I Promise It’s Political, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Notorious: Art and Cinema, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK (and other venues in Sydney, Australia, Tokyo, Japan and Barcelona, Spain until 2001)
Media/Metaphor, 46th Corcoran Biennial, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
The Impossible Document: Photography and British Conceptual Art 1967-76, Camera Work Gallery, London, UK
Face à l’Histoire 1933 – 1966: L’artiste moderne face à l’événement historique, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1965 – 1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art / The Temporary Contemporary, Los Angeles, California, USA
3e Biennale de Lyon: installation, cinéma, vidéo, informatique in Lyon, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, France
Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945, Museum of Contemporary Art / The Temporary Contemporary, Los Angeles, California, USA
Photography after Photography: defining Photography through Digitality, Kunsthalle München, Munich, Germany (and other venues in Europe and the USA)
Text & Image, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt/Main, Germany and MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy
The Art of Photography: 1839-1989, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA; Royal Academy of Art, London, UK; Ministry of Culture of the Soviet Union, Moscow, Russia and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: On Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles County Art Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA
L’art conceptuel, une perspective, ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
The Future of the Metropolis, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
The Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London, UK
Photography and Art, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Queens Museum, New York and Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA
Écran Politiques, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Canada
Berlinart 1961-1987, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
The British Edge, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
British Art in the Twentieth Century, The Royal Academy, London, UK
Difference: On Sexuality and Representation, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
Photographic Image in Contemporary Art, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Kunst im Sozialen Kontext, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany
The 3rd Biennale of Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Three Perspectives on Photography, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Hayward Annual, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Europe in the Seventies’ Aspects of Recent Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Social Criticism and Art Practise, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California, USA
Arte Inglese Oggi 1960-1976, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
Victor Burgin/Art and Language, Musée d’Art et d’Industrie, Saint-Etienne, France
Art and Politics, Galerie M, Bochum, Germany
Contemporanea, Parcheggio di Villa Borghese, Rome, Italy
36th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
documenta 5, Kassel, Germany
The New Art, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Guggenheim International Exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
The British Avant-Garde, The New York Cultural Center, New York, UK
Information, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
When Attitudes Become Form, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK
Le Temps de la Ruine, Victor Burgin, Institut national d’histoire d’art, Paris
Victor Burgin. Between, new edition, MACK, London, UK
Psychical Realism. The Work of Victor Burgin, by Alexander Streitberger, Leuven University Press
Seeing Degree Zero, Edinburgh University Press
Victor Burgin. Afterlife, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany
Victor Burgin : Five Projective : Essays about the work of Victor Burgin, Victor Burgin, Gülru Çakmak, David Campany, Homay King, David Rodowick, Anthony Vidler, Geneva, MamvoPieces for Projection, Berlin, Sternberg Press
Victor Burgin, Parallel texts, London
Situational Aesthetics, Leuven University Press
Components of a Practice, Skira
Voyage to Italy, Göttingen, Steidl
The Remembered Film, London, Reaktion Books
Ensayos, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, Literos,
Relocating, London and Bristol, August/Arnolfini
Victor Burgin, Barcelona, Fundació Antoni Tàpies
Shadowed, Architectural Association, London, UK
Victor Burgin. Robert Gwathmey Lectures, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, USA
Venise, Black Dog Publishing, London, UK
Szerelmes Levelek/Love Letters, Mücsarnok Museum, Budapest, Hungary
In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, USA
Victor Burgin. Some Cities, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, USA and Reaktion Book, London, UK
History Painting, University at Buffalo Art Gallery/Research Center in Art + Culture, Buffalo, New York, USA
Passages, Musée d’art moderne de la Communaté Urbaine de Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, Lille, France
Taideteorian Loppu, Suomen Valokuvataiteen Museon Säätiö, Literos, Helsinki, Finland
Victor Burgin. Opere 1982-1986, Le Case d’Arte, Milan, Italy
Victor Burgin: Office at Night and Danaïdes/Dames, Charlotte, North Carolina, Knight Gallery, City of Charlotte
The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity, Macmillan Press, London/Basingstoke, and Humanities Press International, New Jersey, UK
Between, Basil Blackwell, Oxford and New York Formations of Fantasy, (co-edited with Donald, J. and Kaplan, C.), [Burgin: Introduction, one essay, translation], Methuen, London, UK
Victor Burgin (Ed.): Thinking Photography, The Macmillan Press Ltd., London/Basingstoke, and Humanities Press International, New Jersey, UK
Hôtel Latône, Calais, Edition Musée de Calais
Family, Lapp Princess Press, Ltd., in association with Printer Matter, Inc., New York, USA
Victor Burgin, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Two Essays on Art, Photography and Semiotics, Robert Self Publications, London, UK
Work and Commentary, Latimer, London, UK
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
The New York Public Library, Los Angeles, California, USA
County Museum of Art, Los Angeles , California, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, USA
The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
The Tate Gallery, London, UK
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
The Arts Council Collection, London, UK
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, Dresden, Germany
Zander Galerie
Schönhauser Straße 8
50968 Cologne
Germany
Zander Galerie
6 Rue Jacob
75006 Paris
France
