Rudy Burckhardt
1914-1999
The Swiss American photographer and filmmaker Rudy Burckhardt was a robust contributor to the New York art scene as a documentarian and participant, from 1935 until the end of the century. Burckhardt witnessed and photographed the birth and rise of such groups as the Abstract Expressionists and the New York School. In his own work Burckhardt captured quotidian moments of the city, its people, the demolition & construction of its changing neighborhoods. He brings an acute eye to his random yet formal & playful compositions. Amidst the quantities of photographs Rudy shot, several of them are some of the most iconic of New York City, such as the Flatiron Building, The Brooklyn Waterfront, Queens and the water towers of Chelsea rooftops. In 1914 Rudolph Burckhardt was born in Basel to the notable Swiss family, which included the historian Jacob Burckhardt. He was, from an early age, encouraged to study medicine. However with the discovery of photography and a new friendship with the writer and poet Edwin Denby, Burckhardt’s life changed course. He immigrated to New York City in 1935. For the remainder of the 1930s and 1940s he traveled, photographed and filmed much of the American S…
Films