# Rudy Burckhardt

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Rudy_Burckhardt
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Rudy_Burckhardt.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Burckhardt
> Source revision: 1342898775
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Swiss-American filmmaker and photographer

Rudy Burckhardt Born Rudolph August Burckhardt (1914-04-06)April 6, 1914 Basel, Switzerland Died August 1, 1999(1999-08-01) (aged 85) Searsmont, Maine, U.S. Occupations Photographer filmmaker Years active 1935–1999 Spouses Edith Schloss ​ ​ (m. 1947; div. 1961)​ Yvonne Jacquette ​ (m. 1964)​ Children 2, including Tom Relatives Burckhardt family Signature

**Rudy Burckhardt** ([né](/source/N%C3%A9) **Rudolph August Burckhardt**; April 6, 1914 – August 1, 1999) was a Swiss-American filmmaker, and photographer, known for his photographs of the hand-painted billboards that began to dominate the American landscape in the 1940s and 1950s.[1][2][3] He was married to [Edith Schloss](/source/Edith_Schloss) and [Yvonne Jacquette](/source/Yvonne_Jacquette). His youngest son is artist [Tom Burckhardt](/source/Tom_Burckhardt).

## Life

Burckhardt was a member of the Swiss [patrician](/source/Patrician_(post-Roman_Europe)) [Burckhardt](/source/Burckhardt) family. He discovered photography as a medical student in London. He left medicine to pursue photography in the 1930s. He immigrated to [New York City](/source/New_York_City) in 1935.[4] Between 1934 and 1939, he traveled to [Paris](/source/Paris), [New York](/source/New_York_City), and [Haiti](/source/Haiti) making photographs mostly of city streets and experimenting with short 16mm films. While stationed in [Trinidad](/source/Trinidad) in the [Signal Corps](/source/Signal_Corps_(United_States_Army)) from 1941–1944, he filmed the island's residents. In 1947, he joined the [Photo League](/source/Photo_League) in New York City. Burckhardt married painter [Yvonne Jacquette](/source/Yvonne_Jacquette) (1934-2023) whom he collaborated with throughout their 40-year marriage. During the mid-Fifties he worked with [Joseph Cornell](/source/Joseph_Cornell) on "The Aviary", "Nymphlight", "A Fable For Fountains", and "What Mozart Saw On Mulberry Street".[5] He taught filmmaking and painting at the [University of Pennsylvania](/source/University_of_Pennsylvania) from 1967 to 1975. He was the great-uncle of author [Andreas Burckhardt](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andreas_Burckhardt&action=edit&redlink=1).

Burckhardt [killed himself](/source/Killed_himself) in 1999.[6][7]

## Exhibitions (selection)

- October 25, 2014 – February 15, 2015 "Rudy Burckhardt – In the Jungle of the Big City"[8] at [Fotostiftung Schweiz](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fotostiftung_Schweiz&action=edit&redlink=1) [[de](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotostiftung_Schweiz)][9]

- November 4, 2011 – March 25, 2012 "The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936–1951"[10] at [Jewish Museum (New York)](/source/Jewish_Museum_(New_York))

- September 23, 2008 – January 4, 2009 "New York, N. Why? Photographs by Rudy Burckhardt, 1937–1940"[11] at [Metropolitan Museum of Art](/source/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art)

- February 1, 2008 – May 14, 2008 "Street Dance: The New York Photographs of Rudy Burckhardt"[12] at [Museum of the City of New York](/source/Museum_of_the_City_of_New_York)

- May 9 – July 15, 2000 "Rudy Burckhardt and Friends: New York Artists of the 1950s and '60s"[13] at [New York University](/source/New_York_University)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Rudy Burckhardt's Maine"](https://web.archive.org/web/20091113200115/http://www.nyss.org/exhibitions/rudy-burckhardt-maine/). *nyss.org*. Archived from [the original](http://www.nyss.org/exhibitions/rudy-burckhardt-maine/) on 2009-11-13.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Glueck, Grace (May 30, 2003). ["ART IN REVIEW; Rudy Burckhardt"](https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/30/arts/art-in-review-rudy-burckhardt.html). *The New York Times*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Francis, Mark, ed. (2005). *Pop*. London: Phaidon Press Limited. p. 45.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Katz, Vincent. [""Rudy Burckhardt: A Biographical Sketch""](http://vincentkatz.net/Criticism/criticism_rudy_parkett.htm). *www.vincentkatz.net*. Retrieved October 31, 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Obituary: Rudy Burckhardt"](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-rudy-burckhardt-1112344.html). *The Independent*. October 23, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Subterranean Monument"](http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/reviews/oisteanu/oisteanu8-24-04.asp). *artnet.com*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-NYT1_7-0)** Smith, Roberta (August 4, 1999). ["Rudy Burckhardt, 85, Photographer and Filmmaker, Dies"](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/04/arts/rudy-burckhardt-85-photographer-and-filmmaker-dies.html). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Retrieved October 29, 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Fotostiftung: Rudy Burckhardt"](https://web.archive.org/web/20141218024922/http://www.fotostiftung.ch/en/exhibitions/rudy-burckhardt/). *www.fotostiftung.ch*. Archived from [the original](http://www.fotostiftung.ch/en/exhibitions/rudy-burckhardt/) on 2014-12-18.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** ["Fotostiftung Schweiz"](http://www.fotostiftung.ch/en/exhibitions/rudy-burckhardt/).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** ["The Jewish Museum"](http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/onlinecollection/collection_results.php).{{[cite web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_web)}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_deprecated_archival_service))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["New York, N. Why?"](http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2008/rudy-burckhardt).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["Street Dance | Museum of the City of New York"](https://www.mcny.org/exhibition/street-dance). *www.mcny.org*. Retrieved 2023-10-31.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["Grey Art Gallery"](http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/exhibits/rudy/index.html).

## External links

- ["The Cinema of Looking"](http://jacketmagazine.com/21/denb-giord.html), interview with Burckhardt at *Jacket 21*

- [Film catalog](https://film-makerscoop.com/filmmakers/rudolph-burckhardt) at [The Film-Makers' Cooperative](/source/The_Film-Makers'_Cooperative)

- ["Burckhardt, Rudy"](http://www.sikart.ch/KuenstlerInnen.aspx?id=11282230&lng=en). *[SIKART](/source/SIKART) Lexicon on art in Switzerland*. In German.

- [Audio recording of Rudy Burckhardt Lecture, 1992](https://archive.org/details/mma692-01), from [Maryland Institute College of Art](/source/Maryland_Institute_College_of_Art)'s Decker Library, [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive)

- [Copyright permissions for Rudy Burckhardt](http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/watch/contact_list.cfm?ArtistID=3841), from the WATCH File

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Czech Republic Spain Netherlands Israel Artists ULAN MusicBrainz RKD Artists SIKART Museum of Modern Art Photographers' Identities People Deutsche Biographie DDB Other IdRef SNAC Yale LUX

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Rudy Burckhardt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Burckhardt) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Burckhardt?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.