{{Short description|American painter}} {{Infobox artist | name = Byron Burford | image = Byron-Burford-1960.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Byron Burford in 1960 | birth_name = Byron Leslie Burford, Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date|1920|7|12}} | birth_place = Jackson, Mississippi | death_date = {{death date and age|2011|6|17|1920|7|12}} | death_place = Iowa City, Iowa | field = Painting | training = University of Iowa School of Art and Art History | movement = | works = | patrons = | influenced by = | influenced = | awards = }} '''Byron Leslie Burford, Jr.''' (July 12, 1920 – June 17, 2011) was an American figurative painter.
==Biography== Byron Leslie Burford, Jr., was born July 12, 1920, in Jackson, Mississippi, to Byron and Floy Smith Burford. Growing up in Greenville, Burford became fascinated with the carnivals and circuses booked to perform in the community by his father, who directed the local YMCA. At the age of 14 Burford went to work as a roadie for the Tom Mix Circus, and he painted circus life.<ref name="NYT Obit">{{cite news |last=Hevesi |first=Dennis |date=June 26, 2011 |title=Byron Burford, Artist of Circus Life, Dies at 90|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/arts/byron-burford-90-american-figurative-artist-dies.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2016-05-07 }}</ref>
After he completed high school, Burford studied at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History and was one of the students mentored by Grant Wood.<ref name="NYT Obit"/> In 1941 Burford completed a commission for the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture, a mural for the U.S. post office in Houston, Mississippi.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/post-office-mural-houston-ms/ |title=Post Office Mural – Houston MS|website=Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2016-05-07 }}</ref> He received his bachelor's degree in 1942 and joined the United States Army Air Corps. After World War II he returned to the University of Iowa and completed his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1947.<ref name="NYT Obit"/>
Burford taught painting at University of Iowa for 38 years.<ref name="NYT Obit"/> His friends in Iowa City included Kurt Vonnegut, who taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop for two years in the 1960s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2012/11/20/kurt_vonnegut_the_author_s_advice_for_a_friend_about_to_teach_at_the_iowa.html |title=Kurt Vonnegut's 1967 Advice to a New Teacher at the Iowa Writers' Workshop |last=Onion |first=Rebecca |date=November 20, 2012 |website=Slate |access-date=2016-05-07}}</ref> Throughout his academic career Burford used his breaks to travel with circuses, painting and playing drums with the band.<ref name="NYT Obit"/> Burford's paintings and prints<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.olsonlarsen.com/en/artists/?albumID=3792&action=dspalbum |title=Byron Burford|publisher=Olson-Larsen Galleries |access-date=2016-05-07}}</ref> of soldiers, athletes, jazz musicians, factory workers and circus people attracted a wide following.<ref name="NYT Obit"/> A well-known artist in the Midwest, Burford exhibited widely and received many honors and awards,<ref name="Kramer">{{cite news |last=Kramer |first=Hilton |author-link=Hilton Kramer |date=April 23, 1966 |title='The American Sculptor, 1900-1930'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/04/23/archives/the-american-sculptor-19001930-survey-ranges-from-manship-to-storrs.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2016-05-07 }}</ref> including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1960<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/byron-burford/ |title=Byron Burford |publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |access-date=2016-05-07 }}</ref> and a grant from the National Academy of Arts and Letters in 1967.<ref>{{cite news |date=April 28, 1967 |title=Institute of Arts and Letters Gives 7 Artists $2,500 Each |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/04/28/archives/institute-of-arts-and-letters-gives-7-artists-2500-each.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2016-05-07 }}</ref>
In 1966, Hilton Kramer of ''The New York Times'' praised Burford's first one-person show in New York, noting that "Mr. Burford surprises us by displaying a very lively imagination, some obsessive themes and a real flair for dramatizing his ideas. Motifs drawn from carnival and circus life, from popular culture and nostalgic glimpses of forgotten wars, are transformed into graphic symbols of a notable complexity."<ref name="Kramer"/>
His work is in the permanent collections of institutions including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center and the University of Iowa Museum of Art.<ref name="NYT Obit"/>
Burford was married for 65 years to Kathleen Kane, who died in 2009; they had three children. Burford died June 17, 2011, at his home in Iowa City, of natural causes, aged 90.<ref name="NYT Obit"/>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== * ''[http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=32594 Sugar and Spice]'' (1991), painting in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160505060448/http://www.deanjensengallery.com/artist_burford.php Byron Burford] at the Dean Jensen Gallery
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burford, Byron}} Category:1920 births Category:2011 deaths Category:20th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:Artists from Jackson, Mississippi Category:People from Greenville, Mississippi Category:People from Iowa City, Iowa Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Category:University of Iowa alumni Category:University of Iowa faculty Category:Section of Painting and Sculpture artists Category:20th-century American male artists