Chris Burden
American sculptor and performance artist (1946–2015)
Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance art, sculpture, and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including Shoot (1971), where he arranged for a friend to shoot him in the arm with a small-caliber rifle. A prolific artist, Burden created many well-known installations, public artworks, and sculptures before his death in 2015.
Early life and career
Chris Burden was born in Boston in 1946 to Robert Burden, an engineer, and Rhoda Burden, a biologist. He grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, France and Italy.
At the age of 12, Burden had emergency surgery, performed without anesthesia, on his left foot after he was severely injured in a motor-scooter crash on the island of Elba. During the long convalescence that followed, he became deeply interested in visual art, particularly photography.
He studied for his B.A. in visual arts, physics and architecture at Pomona College in 1965–1969 and received his MFA at the University of California, Irvine—where his teachers included Robert Irwin—from 1969 to 1971.
Work
Early performance art
Chris Burden began to work in performance art in the early 1970s. He made a series of controversial performances to directly confront the violent realities of the Vietnam War and American culture.
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