Rudy Burckhardt : a Short Biographical Sketch = Eine Biographische Skizze
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Rudy Burckhardt : a short biographical sketch = eine biographische Skizze Autor(en): Katz, Vincent / Nansen Objekttyp: Article Zeitschrift: Parkett : the Parkett series with contemporary artists = Die Parkett- Reihe mit Gegenwartskünstlern Band (Jahr): - (1996) Heft 48: Collaborations Gary Hume, Gabriel Orozco, Pipilotti Rist PDF erstellt am: 24.09.2021 Persistenter Link: http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-681361 Nutzungsbedingungen Die ETH-Bibliothek ist Anbieterin der digitalisierten Zeitschriften. Sie besitzt keine Urheberrechte an den Inhalten der Zeitschriften. Die Rechte liegen in der Regel bei den Herausgebern. Die auf der Plattform e-periodica veröffentlichten Dokumente stehen für nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke in Lehre und Forschung sowie für die private Nutzung frei zur Verfügung. Einzelne Dateien oder Ausdrucke aus diesem Angebot können zusammen mit diesen Nutzungsbedingungen und den korrekten Herkunftsbezeichnungen weitergegeben werden. 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Ein Dienst der ETH-Bibliothek ETH Zürich, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich, Schweiz, www.library.ethz.ch http://www.e-periodica.ch V/jVC£AT JfATZ RUDY BURCKHARDT A S/ior£ .Biograjb/acaZ Rudy Burckhardt was born in Basel, the he would often leave his wife and baby the work of the nineteen year-old Rudy, son of a ribbon manufacturer related there to make the long trip back to hot and he himself is revealed as a fre- to the eminent Renaissance art histo- New York. I believe he did that for no quenter of offbeat solitude, a straying rian, Jacob Burckhardt. He was the other reason than to stand on a street boulevardier. During a visit to Paris in product of a rigorous Swiss education corner, hear cars honk, and watch peo- 1934, Rudy advanced his photographic coupled with a childhood where his pie walk past. ambitions. For the first time, he shot freedom to dream was guaranteed by The early London photos have not people close-up—Parisian women in ribbons. Rudy studied Latin and Greek been seen much. I myself saw most of trams, on a carousel. By this time, the and was preparing to become a doctor. them only for the first time this year. rudiments of his mature style were At that time, he was already taking pho- (Rudy is nonchalant about his work, already evident: an unaffected fluency tographs sporadically around Basel. leaving negatives in drawers for years, in the textures of his streets and skies A trip to London in 1933 changed printing only a scattering of his shots and a discerning humanism that al- everything. Ostensibly, he went to study, from time to time). In these photos, he lowed him to depict people from all but after a few lectures, he never went catches London off-kilter. Except for walks of life in their best possible light. back. What he did instead was to one shot of Piccadilly Circus, the rest Returning to Basel, Rudy was dis- wander around London, taking photo- are of obscure streets, grim lines of covered by Edwin Denby, the American graphs. These turned out to be his first brick row houses or lonely intersec- dance critic and poet, who came to him "city series," of which many more were tions. In them, one becomes involved one winter day to get a passport photo to follow. Rudy is essentially a city per- with the hulking forms of buildings or taken. They remained friends for al- son. He thrives on the heat a city gives bridges, rather than with the pathetic most fifty years, living, traveling, and off, the energy of collective desire. stories behind their facades. Rudy has working together. Denby introduced Even when he started spending sum- it both ways—he shows the real world Burckhardt to the sophisticated world mers on Deer Isle, Maine, in the fifties, without limiting it by social critique. of the cultural elite—among Denby's He reveals the multiplicity of the mun- friends were Jean Cocteau, Virgil Thom- V7TVC£iVT i£ATZ is a poet and transla- dane, the beauty of ugliness. The in- son, Aaron Copland, Kurt Weill, Lotte tor who lives in New York City. conspicuous makes its presence felt in Lenya, and the New York art world. In 145 PARKETT 48 1996 i?£®K BJ/ÂCiûïARDT', S/iMCC/SA 17, 7957. the fifties, Denby and Burckhardt col- also in perspicuous journals. He lived journal, / /tad a glass o/ tome m a melt- laborated on a book, Mcdlterraracara Cll- with Germaine for nine months, en- fejbt Freraclt eslaWis/tmenl decorated m mod- tes, which paired Denby's terse, diffi- tering into the life of the Haitians in erra Moom/t style. Some mera zoereyrasl attoral cult sonnets with Burckhardt's expan- such a way as to enable him to create lo leaoe, and 1/te girls mere Aisslrag litem sive and arresting photographs, such images of uncommon generosity. Far good-frye ^feasaralty. 11 mas wry Irerac/t arad as the almost-choreographical series of from stealing the souls of his subjects, oery ètislraess-HÂe, arad 1 corald _/eet lite Irora people "suspended" in white space on Rudy reveals their moments of joy or rwle o/ 1/te Madam. "Arad raom lo yorar ^tlac- " a sunlit piazza in Siracusa. solemn introspection in the context es, girls, s/te said y'rasl 1/tera, Aral 1 le/1 arad Rudy moved to New York in 1935 of shared experience. Whether out of meral iraside mil/t a ^raiel, rallier sad S^ara- where he has lived ever since, de- romantic intrigue, aesthetic desire, or islt girl iraslead, mAo mas slaradirag ira a spite his frequent rambles. Rudy and anthropological curiosity, Rudy has doormay domra a darAer side street. Edwin's next-door neighbor on 21st constantly pursued what we might Nowadays, Rudy divides his time Street was Willem de Kooning, and the define as "enlightenment." between New York and Searsmont, three became fast friends. Rudy and When I read Rudy's journals, pub- Maine, where he has had a house for Edwin bought his paintings, and de lished in the long-out-of-print Moltite thirty years. At eighty-two, Rudy, who Kooning painted Rudy's portrait. Rudy Homes (Z Press, Calais, 1979), I realize still works primarily in photography and Edwin went to Haiti, and there how much he has seen and experi- and film and delights in his small, began Rudy's first love affair, with a enced. He served in both the Swiss and erotic, "postcollages," has also made beautiful Haitian woman named Ger- the U.S. armies; in World War II, he a breakthrough in painting, moving maine, whom he photographed—the applied for a position as a Signal Corps beyond scenes to startling close-up first of a lifelong series of portraits of photographer in Trinidad and spent views. Rudy has made over seventy women. Rudy documented his trav- most of his stint there, evading the tur- films, including brilliantly poetic ac- els—to Haiti, Morocco, Peru—not only moil of the front. In Tangiers, in 1955, counts of snow falling on New York in photographs and 16mm films, but Rudy made the following entry in his fire escapes, set to Haydn; crazy scenes 146 ÄC®y BffyÄCKÄAÄDT, HERALD SQ£/AR£, AffiW LORE, 1947. of traffic, and Times Square at night pie—and, later, lets what he has shot Rudy's tendency is exactly the oppo- in the 1960s (in color) set to The determine the shape of the film. Sim- site. He seems to want to connect with Suprêmes. Rudy has always had a great ilarly, his films are characterized by as much of humanity as possible. It is a feel for music, whether classical or their exquisite form, but the form is tendency that has kept him open and pop, country and western, Haitian, or not imposed on the subject; rather, youthful. rock'n'roll. In the film MOBILE HOMES the subject determines the formal path Rudy Burckhardt has had a charmed (1979), there is a sequence of Rudy's taken. His work is classical, revealing a life, and, though it would sometimes son Tom, skateboarding. The accompa- profound sense of balance and propor- seem that he does everything casually, nying soundtrack is a song by Blondie. tion, not just in visual terms, but in the without a thought, it is in fact not by Rudy never seems like he's trying to be relation of sound to image, silence, luck but by shrewd and forceful deci- hip; it's just suddenly there, startling rhythm. There is often great variation sion that he extricated himself from and natural, like a black-eyed Susan in his films, from scenes that go by in the comfort and safety of his upbring- bobbing in the breeze. real time, to fast edits that produce an ing to make that leap into the void and Rudy has the ability to make every- effect like animation, to actual anima- become an artist. one he photographs look beautiful. tion, to time-lapse animation (as in the Leaving Rudy's building on a warm This is very difficult to do. He achieves beginning of MOBILE HOMES, where September evening, the sky still retain- this because he sees and appreciates we see a bunch of bananas on a window ing vestiges of light, night coming on, I people as they are.