{"product_id":"rudy-burckhardt-9780810943476","title":"Rudy Burckhardt","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe poet John Ashbery wrote of Rudy Burckhardt in 1980: \"Before there was an underground  there was Rudy Burckhardt. The genial  Swiss-born jack-of-all-trades and master of several has remained unsung for so long that he is practically a subterranean monument.\" Since that time Burckhardts reputation has steadily grown - as photographer  filmmaker  and painter - beyond Manhattans downtown community of artists in which he lived and worked. For six decades Rudy Burckhardt (1914-1999) was a discreet  but enduring  and ultimately important figure in New Yorks avant-garde art world. Born in Basel  Switzerland  Burckhardt immigrated to the United States in 1935 to escape the Swiss Army and stultifying cultural and social atmosphere  to look for adventure far from home. He soon found himself sharing a loft with then companion and lifelong friend  the poet and dance critic  Edwin Denby. Willem de Kooning lived next door. (Together with Denby  Burckhardt was one of the first serious collectors of de Koonings work.) Aaron Copland  Virgil Thompson  and Paul Bowles were good friends of his. And soon Burckhardt was embarking on a profound photographic portrait of New York City: the midday crowds in midtown Manhattan  storefronts and standpipes  Astor Place  Times Square  the Flatiron Building  the gray  water-towered regions of Chelsea  the great swath of Sixth Avenue  humble curbs  fleeting shadows  a modest studio in Brooklyn  as well as the existentialist landscapes of Astoria and Laurel Hill in Queens - with its anonymous factory buildings  empty lots  broken sidewalks  and girdered highways over cement gardens against the great veil of the Manhattan skyline. He also photographer the great painters of the New York School  from Willem de Kooning  Jackson Pollock  and Mark Rothko to Philip Guston  Larry Rivers  and Brice Marden. As well as the now classic images of New York  Burckhardt photographed London  Paris  Mediterranean cities  the segregated American South  Haiti  Trinidad  Mexico  and the forest and ferns of his summer retreats in Maine. Over the course of his life  Burckhardt was a link between succeeding generations of artist  poets  dancers  and filmmakers. Gradually  his standing as a cultural force has been acknowledged  not only as a photographer  bur also as a maker of underground films  and  in his later years  as a painter. This book is the first comprehensive monograph on Burckhardts photography. Author Phillip Lopate  a long-time friend of the photographer  provides an insightful and thought-provoking homage to the quiet brilliance of a national treasure. And the poet and curator  Vincent Katz  has contributed an essay further elaborating on Burckhardts photographic achievement. Illustrated with almost three hundred photographs  Rudy Burckhardt presents the remarkable depth and range of the artists work. The book will fascinate anyone interested in the New York art world and offers a revelation for all those interested in photography.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45652090814517,"sku":"ByrdShop_0810943476","price":66.65,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780810943476.jpg?v=1781849056","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/rudy-burckhardt-9780810943476","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}