Research Catalog

Queer behavior Scott Burton and performance art

Title
Queer behavior [electronic resource] : Scott Burton and performance art / David J. Getsy.
Author
Getsy, David.
Publication
Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Available Online

Available onsite at NYPL

Details

Description
1 online resource (xi, 402 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations.
Summary
"Scott Burton (1939-89) created performance art and sculpture that drew on queer experience and the sexual cultures that flourished in New York City in the 1970s. David J. Getsy argues that Burton looked to nonverbal body language and queer behavior in public space-most importantly, street cruising-as a foundation for rethinking the audiences and possibilities of art. Throughout the decade, he made complex works about bodies and how they communicate. Extending his performances about cruising, sexual signaling, and power dynamics, Burton also created functional sculptures that covertly signaled queerness by hiding in plain sight as furniture waiting to be used. With research drawing from multiple archives and numerous interviews, Getsy charts Burton's deep engagements with postminimalism, performance, feminism, behavioral psychology, design history, and queer culture. A restless and wide-ranging artist, Burton transformed his commitment to gay liberation into a unique practice of performance, sculpture, and public art that aspired to be anti-elitist, embracing of differences, and open to all. Filled with stories of Burton's life in New York's art communities, Queer Behavior makes a case for Burton as one of the most significant out queer artists to emerge in the wake of the Stonewall uprising and, in so doing, provides a rich account of the interwoven histories of queer art and performance art in the 1970s"--
Uniform Title
Queer behavior (Online)
Alternative Title
Queer behavior (Online)
Subject
  • Burton, Scott, 1939-1989
  • Sculptors > United States > Biography
  • Sexual minorities in art
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-385) and indexes.
Access (note)
  • Access restricted to authorized users.
Contents
Introduction: Scott Burton's Queer Postminimalism -- Street and Stage: Early Experiments -- Imitate Ordinary Life: Self-Works, Literalist Theater, and Being Otherwise in Public, 1969-70 -- Languages of the Body: Theatrical, Feminist, and Scientific Foundations, 1970-71 -- Performance and Its Uses -- The Emotional Nature of the Number of Inches between Them: Behavior Tableaux, 1972-80 -- Acting Out: Queer Reactions and Reveals, 1973-76 -- Pragmatic Structures: Sculpture and the Performance of Furniture, 1972-79 -- Conclusion: Homocentric and Demotic.
LCCN
2022002173
OCLC
ssj0002712394
Author
Getsy, David.
Title
Queer behavior [electronic resource] : Scott Burton and performance art / David J. Getsy.
Imprint
Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2022.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-385) and indexes.
Access
Access restricted to authorized users.
Connect to:
Available onsite at NYPL
View in Legacy Catalog