Scott Burton

Exhibition Catalogue, London, Albion Gallery, Scott Burton, 2006, pp. 60-62, illustrated in colour

Scott Burton developed a new genre of public art that he termed 'pragmatic sculpture'. Fusing form with function and art with furniture, it challenges habitual notions regarding art's relationship to its audience and is elegantly balanced in the territory between art, design and architecture. Burton's main concept was that art justifies itself by being functional, and the present work is designed not only to be admired as an object, but also to be used. In fact, he considered that his work could not be fully understood just by being regarded, but that it must be used. In this, it continues the Bauhaus tradition of utilitarian Modernism, which had itself placed a similar emphasis on the unity between fine art and craftsmanship. And while the title underlines the work's utilitarian properties, the spatial choreography of its strong Minimalist forms echoes this by speaking of the need for rest and repose, contemplation and conversation.