This Exhibit Pays Homage To Scott Burton’s Legacy

Cut short by an untimely death in 1989 at age 50, American artist Scott Burton’s 20-year career crossed over myriad genres: from sculpture, pho­tography, drawing, performance, and video to art criticism, curation, and collecting. This legacy is examined in “Scott Burton: Shape Shift,” taking over all six galleries and the outdoor courtyard at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis through February 2. Among the exhibit’s more than 100 pieces, some of which Burton referred to as “sculp­ture in love with furniture,” is his 1980 Aluminum Chair that pays homage to the Adirondack version, 5-ton granite Rock Settee from 1988, and Five-Part Storage Cubes, 1982, in a rainbow palette. Inde­pen­dent curator Jess Wilcox penned the show’s pro­voc­ative title, alluding not only to the breadth of Bur­ton’s work but also the reality of life as a gay man who died from an AIDS-related illness.