From Minimalism to Performance Art: Chris Burden, 1967–1971 Matthew Teti Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 Matthew Teti All rights reserved ABSTRACT From Minimalism to Performance Art: Chris Burden, 1967–1971 Matthew Teti This dissertation was conceived as an addendum to two self-published catalogs that American artist Chris Burden released, covering the years 1971–1977. It looks in-depth at the formative work the artist produced in college and graduate school, including minimalist sculpture, interactive environments, and performance art. Burden’s work is herewith examined in four chapters, each of which treats one or more related works, dividing the artist’s early career into developmental stages. In light of a wealth of new information about Burden and the environment in which he was working in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this dissertation examines the artist’s work in relation to West Coast Minimalism, the Light and Space Movement, Environments, and Institutional Critique, above and beyond his well-known contribution to performance art, which is also covered herein. The dissertation also analyzes the social contexts in which Burden worked as having been informative to his practice, from the beaches of Southern California, to rock festivals and student protest on campus, and eventually out to the countercultural communes. The studies contained in the individual chapters demonstrate that close readings of Burden’s work can open up to formal and art-historical trends, as well as social issues that can deepen our understanding of these and later works. Benefitting from access to the artist’s estate, as well as archives collected at various institutions in Southern California, this dissertation is the first authoritative coverage of Chris Burden’s early career. Table of Contents List of Illustrations ii Acknowledgements v Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Minimalism, Pomona College, 1967 37 Chapter 2 Corridors, Pomona College, 1969 75 Chapter 3 Five Day Locker Piece and Bicycle Piece, 128 University of California Irvine, 1971 Chapter 4 F Space and Shout Piece, Santa Ana, 1971 182 Conclusion 231 Illustrations 246 Bibliography 308 i List of Illustrations Chapter 1 Minimalism, Pomona College, 1967 Fig. 1 Kenneth Price exhibition announcement, Ferus Gallery, 1961 246 Fig. 2 Billy Al Bengston exhibition announcement, Ferus Gallery, 1961 247 Fig. 3 John Mason working in his Silver Lake studio, 1960 248 Fig. 4 John Mason working in his Silver Lake studio, 1960 248 Fig. 5 John Mason, Blue Wall, 1959 249 Fig. 6 Chris Burden, untitled bronze sculpture, 1966 250 Fig. 7 Chris Burden, untitled bronze sculpture, 1966 250 Fig. 8 John Mason, Geometric Form, Dark, 1966 251 Fig. 9 Tony Smith, The Black Box, 1962 252 Fig. 10 Tony Smith, Die, 1962 253 Fig. 11 Rosalind E. Krauss, “Sculpture in the Expanded Field” 254 Fig. 12 David Gray, L.A./5, 1965 255 Fig. 13 Chris Burden, Plan for untitled sculpture, 1967 256 Fig. 14 Architect’s rendering of Chris Burden’s untitled 1967 sculpture 256 Fig. 15 Chris Burden, untitled sculpture, 1967 257 Fig. 16 Chris Burden, untitled sculpture, 1967 257 Fig. 17 Chris Burden, untitled sculpture, 1967 257 Fig. 18 Chris Burden, untitled sculpture, 1967 257 Fig. 19 Chris Burden, untitled sculpture, 1967 257 Fig. 20 Tony Smith, Amaryllis, 1965 258 Fig. 21 Archival photograph of Chris Burden, untitled sculpture, 1967 259 Fig. 22 Archival photograph of Chris Burden, untitled sculpture, 1967 259 Fig. 23 John Mason, Yellow Cross, 1966 260 Fig. 24 John Mason, Red X, 1966 260 Fig. 25 John McCracken, Untitled (yellow), 1967 261 Chapter 2 Corridors, Pomona College, 1969 Fig. 26 Chris Burden, untitled corridor, 1969 (white) 262 Fig. 27 Chris Burden, untitled corridor, 1969 (white) 262 Fig. 28 Chris Burden, untitled corridor, 1969 (white) 262 Fig. 29 Chris Burden, untitled corridor, 1969 (black) 263 Fig. 30 Chris Burden, untitled corridor, 1969 (black) 263 Fig. 31 Mowry Baden, Delivery Suite, 1965 264 Fig. 32 Mowry Baden, Auger, 1967 265 Fig. 33 Mowry Baden, Phantom Limb, 1967 266 Fig. 34 Mowry Baden, Phantom Limb, 1967 266 Fig. 35 Bruce Nauman, Performance Corridor, 1969 267 Fig. 36 Bruce Nauman, Walk with Contrapposto, 1968 268 Fig. 37 Experimental corridor apparatus, early–mid 1960s 269 ii Fig. 38 Experimental corridor apparatus, early–mid 1960s 269 Fig. 39 Mowry Baden, I Walk the Line, 1967 270 Fig. 40 Mowry Baden, Instrument, 1969 271 Fig. 41 Archival photograph of the discovery of the Lascaux caves 272 Fig. 42 “The Pit Scene” cave painting from Lascaux, 15,000 BP 272 Fig. 43 Robert Irwin and James Turrell examine a Ganzfeld device, 1969 273 Fig. 44 Lucas Samaras, drawing for Corridor #1, 1966–1967 274 Fig. 45 Tony Smith, Maze, 1967 275 Fig. 46 Tony Smith, Bat Cave, 1970 276 Fig. 47 Jean Toche, Labyrinths and Psychological Stress, 1967 277 Fig. 48 Les Levine, All Star Cast, 1967 278 Chapter 3 Five Day Locker Piece and Bicycle Piece, University of California Irvine, 1971 Fig. 49 Chris Burden, Five Day Locker Piece, 1971 279 Fig. 50 UCI promotional photo showing students in art class, late 1960s 280 Fig. 51 Aerial view of the Fine Arts Building at UCI, late 1960s 281 Fig. 52 Chris Burden, announcement for Five Day Locker Piece, 1971 282 Fig. 53 Archival photograph of Barbara Burden feeding Chris, 1971 283 Fig. 54 Robert Morris, Untitled (Box for Standing), 1961 284 Fig. 55 Paul Thek, untitled “Technological Reliquary,” 1966 285 Fig. 56 Scott Grieger, Ronald Bladen, 1970 286 Fig. 57 Robert Kinmont, 8 Natural Handstands (detail), 1967/1969 287 Fig. 58 Chris Burden, Bicycle Piece, 1971 288 Fig. 59 Chris Burden, Bicycle Piece, 1971 289 Fig. 60 May Day protest on Gateway Plaza at UCI, 1969 290 Chapter 4 F Space and Shout Piece, Santa Ana, 1971 Fig. 61 Archival photo of F Space, 1972 291 Fig. 62 Archival photo of F Space, 1972 291 Fig. 63 Lewis Baltz, Industrial Structure, during Painting, Irvine, 1974 292 Fig. 64 Bruce Dunlap, Bread Piece, 1972 293 Fig. 65 Nancy Buchanan, Hair Piece, 1971 294 Fig. 66 Nancy Buchanan and Robert Walker, At Home, 1971 295 Fig. 67 Drawing for Being Photographed, Looking Out, Looking In, 1971/2006 296 Fig. 68 Photographs from Being Photographed, Looking Out, Looking In, 1971 297 Fig. 69 Archival photograph of Shout Piece, 1971 298 Fig. 70 Barbara T. Smith, Field Piece, 1971 299 Fig. 71 Chris Burden, Shout Piece, 1971 300 Fig. 72 Yippie activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, 1967 301 Fig. 73 Newton Harrison, Fred Londrier, and Allan Sekula, Body Bags, 1970 302 Fig. 74 A commune somewhere in Virginia, 1969 303 Fig. 75 The cover of Jerry Rubin’s book Do It!, 1970 304 iii Fig. 76 Detail from an archival photograph of Shout Piece, 1971 305 Fig. 77 Archival photograph of Shout Piece, 1971 306 Fig. 78 Archival photograph of Shout Piece, 1971 306 Fig. 79 Installation shot of Shout Piece, published 1974 307 iv Acknowledgements Thank you, first and foremost, to Nancy Rubins, Joshua Feigenbaum, and the Chris Burden Studio and Estate for making my work possible, as well as to Liza McLaughlin for facilitating my research. Thank you to my dissertation advisor, Branden Joseph, and the faculty of the Department of Art History & Archaeology of Columbia University, whose support and funding for my project has sustained me for several years. Funding for my work has also been generously provided by the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the exceptional staff of the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, especially Kitty Chibnik, Zak Rouse, and Richie Walters, and to the entire Columbia University Library system. Research for this dissertation was carried out in museums, universities, libraries, and archives across the country. For their help with this project, I extend my thanks to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Library and Archives, the Whitney Museum of American Art Library and Archives, the Museum of Modern Art Library and Archives (Jenny Tobias), the Metropolitan Museum of Art Library and Archives, the New York Public Library, The New Museum (Margot Norton), Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), the Archives of American Art, the Orange County Museum of Art (Alyssa Cordova), the University of California, Los Angeles Library, the Getty Research Institute (Lois White), The Claremont Colleges Library, and the University of California, Irvine (Miles Coolidge, Allyson Unzicker, and Krystal Tribbett). Special thanks go to the Pomona College Museum of Art’s Rebecca McGrew, whose work on the exhibition and catalog It Happened at Pomona: Art at the Edge of Los Angeles 1969–1973 was instrumental for this project. And to Grace Kook-Anderson, whose oral history project and exhibition Best Kept Secret: UCI and the Development of Contemporary Art in Southern v California 1964–1971 was an invaluable resource, as well as Dawn Minegar at the Laguna Art Museum who facilitated my research, many thanks. Early versions of two of these chapters were presented at the Graduate Student Colloquium in the Department of Art History & Archaeology of Columbia University, the 2017 Universities Art Association of Canada (UAAC-AAUC) conference, and the 2018 Rutgers Art History Graduate Student Symposium. I wish to thank all those involved with arranging these talks, especially Gwen Unger and Charlotte Gorant at Columbia University and Kristen Carter at the University of British Columbia. Many of the artists and administrators who play a role in this story were kind enough to provide interviews, which were critical to reconstructing Chris Burden’s early career. I would like to thank Tony DeLap, Phyllis Lutjeans, Barbara T. Smith, Thomas Garver, Bruce Richards, Mowry Baden, Glenn Phillips, Nancy Buchanan, Robert Walker, Charles Christopher Hill, and Paula Sweet for sharing their time and recollections with me.