Scott Burton & the Equitable Center
overview
Scott Burton, a major figure in the New York art scene of the 1970s and 1980s, specialized in the creation of public installations that combined furniture design and sculpture.
Among his major works are three at the former Equitable Center.
On the Map
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Urban Plaza South (1985-86), an installation near the Sixth Avenue entrance to the Equitable Center on 51st Street, 2016. Photo by Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
Urban Plaza South (1985-86), an installation near the Sixth Avenue entrance to the Equitable Center on 51st Street, 2016. Photo by Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
Urban Plaza North (1985), near 52nd Street, with chairs and settees in granite, 2016. Photo by Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
Atrium Furnishment (1984-85), an installation in the Seventh Avenue lobby of the Equitable Center, with a 40-foot semi-circular bench of marble with onyx lights set around a circular table with a fountain (now a planter), 2016. Photo by NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
Artist Scott Burton in an undated photo. Source unknown.
History
The two buildings that comprise the Equitable Center (now AXA) were planned in the 1980s to contain significant works of public art. Three of these are by Scott Burton.
Burton was an art critic and performance artist in the 1960s and ’70s, and took full advantage of the city’s gay underground nightlife. In the mid-1970s, Burton turned to furniture design and this soon developed into what he called “pragmatic sculptures,” public art installations that bridged the divide between high art and furniture.
The Equitable Center has three works from Burton. In the building’s Seventh Avenue lobby Burton installed Atrium Furnishment (1984-85), a 40-foot semi-circular bench of marble with onyx lights set around a circular table with a fountain (now a planter). The arc of the bench is echoed by a small grove of conifer trees. Near Sixth Avenue, alongside what was then the Paine Webber Building, Burton designed two installations (1985-86). Urban Plaza South, on 51st Street, includes a pair of triangular granite planters with wood benches and small granite mushroom-like tables, each with three stools of similar design. Similar planters appear at Urban Plaza North on 52nd Street, where they are joined by austere granite chairs and couches. In 1989, Burton died of AIDS at the age of 50.
[Scott Burton’s] work balanced stubbornly and elegantly between art and furniture while evolving into a new kind of public sculpture.
Burton has two other installations in New York City. In Lower Manhattan he designed the long granite bench on the plaza in front of the World Financial Center (now Brookfield Place). Burton’s installation of benches, ottomans, lamps, and wind vanes of steel and wood enlivens the fishing piers in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
Entry by Andrew S. Dolkart, project director (March 2017).
NOTE: Names above in bold indicate LGBT people.
Building Information
- Architect or Builder: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (Sixth Avenue building); Edward Larrabee Barnes (Seventh Avenue building)
- Year Built: 1959-60 (Sixth Avenue building); 1986 (Seventh Avenue building)
Sources
Nancy Princenthal, “High Style, Clear Form, Sharp Edge,” Art in America, March 11, 2013.
Roberta Smith, “Scott Burton, Sculpture Whose Art Verged on Furniture, Is Dead at 50,” The New York Times, January 1, 1990. [source of pull quote]
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