Edward Burra

Edward John Burra CBE (29 March 1905 – 22 October 1976) was an English painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, best known for his depictions of the urban underworld, Black culture and the Harlem scene of the 1930s.

Biography Early life Burra was born on 29 March 1905 at his grandmother's house in Elvaston Place, London, to Henry Curteis Burra, J.P., of Springfield Lodge, Rye, East Sussex, and Ermentrude Anne (née Robinson Luxford). His father, of a Westmorland family traceable back to the fourteenth century, was a barrister and later Chairman of East Sussex County Council. He declined associate membership of the Royal Academy in 1963, but accepted a CBE in 1971. All the footage of the interview with Burra conducted for this film was assembled into a documentary in 1981, The Burra Interview, in which he avers that "Nothing matters" and praises Yorkshire because "it's nice and bare".

Legacy

In the 1980s, Burra's paintings were used on the covers of Allison and Busby reprints of the "Harlem Cycle" novels of Chester Himes.

At the Sotheby's Evill/Frost sale in June 2011, Burra’s Zoot Suits sold for £2,057,250, breaking a record set for the artist earlier in the evening when The Common Stair, from 1929, sold for £881,250.

The first major museum exhibition of Burra's work for more than 25 years was held at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, from 22 October 2011 to 19 February 2012. It was accompanied by a new monograph on the artist by the curator, Simon Martin.

Tate Britain opened a retrospective exhibition of Burra's works in 2025. The show's curator described Burra as "one of the great known unknowns of modern British art".

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions 1929, April – Leicester Galleries, London 1932, May – Leicester Galleries, London 1937, May – Springfield Museum of Art, Massachusetts, USA 1942, November – Redfern Gallery, London 1947, June – Leicester Galleries, London 1949, July – Leicester Galleries, London 1955, January – Magdalene Sothmann Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Retrospective) 1955, April – Swetzoff Gallery, Boston, USA 1956, October – Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA 1971, July – Treadwell Gallery, London (Woodcuts 1928-9) 1971, October – Hamet Gallery, London (Drawings of 1920s and 1930s) 1973, May – Tate Gallery, London (Retrospective) 1977, May – Lefevre Gallery, London (Memorial Retrospective Exhibition) 1977, October – Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, and tour to Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, and Sunderland Public Library 1980, March – Lefevre Gallery, London 1980, April – Anthony D'Offay, London (Early Works) 1982, April – Lefevre Gallery, London (Paintings 1975-6) 1985, August – Hayward Gallery, London, and subsequent tour 1986 – Maria Henderson Gallery, London (Designs for the Stage) 1987, November – Lefevre Gallery, London 1993, June – Lefevre Gallery, London (Drawings from the 1920s and 1930s) 1994, December – Lefevre Gallery, London (The Formative Years) 2001, February – Spring Olympia Fine Art & Antiques Fair, London 2003, January – James Hyman Fine Art, London (Edward Burra: Stage and Cabaret) 2005, April – James Hyman Fine Art, London (Edward Burra: Real and Surreal) 2005 – Lefevre Gallery, London (A Centenary Exhibition) 2008, January – Tate Britain, London (Selection of Harlem Pictures) 2011, October – Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, and subsequent tour to Djangoly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham

Principal group exhibitions 1927, December – New English Art Club, London 1929, October – London Group, London 1931, October – Recent Developments in British Painting, Arthur Tooth & Sons, London 1932 – British Art, Hamburg Kunstverein 1933, October – Art Now – Mayor Gallery, London 1934, April – Unit One – Mayor Gallery, London and provincial tour 1935 – Exposition international d'Art Modern – Brussels, Belgium 1936, June – International Surrealist Exhibition, New Burlington Galleries, London 1936, December – Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1937, May – Unity of Artists for Peace, Democracy and Cultural Development, Artists International Association, London 1938, January – Exposition internationale du Surréalisme, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France 1939, July – British Painters, New York World's Fair, USA, and North American Tour 1940, June – Surrealism Today, Zwemmer Gallery, London 1951, May – Sixty Paintings for '51, Arts Council (Festival of Britain), London 1957, October – Contemporary British Art, Paris, France 1959, November – Three Contemporary English Artists (with Derrick Greaves and Hubert Dalwood), Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1965 – The English Eye, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, USA, London 1978, January – Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, Hayward Gallery, London 1982, February – A Sense of Place: Edward Burra and Paul Nash, Grey Art Gallery, New York, USA 1987 – British Art in the Twentieth Century, Royal Academy of Art, London 1997 – Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance, Hayward Gallery, London 2001, February – Watercolour, Tate Britain, London

Ballet, opera and theatre productions designed by Burra A Day in a Southern Port (Rio Grande), Camargo Society, Savoy Theatre, London, 29 November 1931 Barbarau, Vic-Wells Ballet, Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, 17 April 1936 Miracle in the Gorbals, Sadler's Wells Ball, Princes Theatre, London, 26 October 1944 Carmen, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 14 January 1947 Don Juan, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 25 November 1948 Don Quixote, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 20 February 1950 Canterbury Prologue (the ballet was previewed under the title Surprise Ballet, Royal Hall, Harrogate, 19 July 1951), Ballet Rambert, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, 30 July 1951; King's Theatre, Hammersmith, London, 15 October 1951 Simply Heavenly, Adelphi Theatre, London, 20 May 1958

Books illustrated by Burra Lee, Laurie, The Voyage of Magellan: A Dramatic Chronicle for Radio, London: John Lehmann Ltd, 1948 The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament: With Drawings by Contemporary Artists. Authorized King James Version of 1611, London: Oxford University Press, 1968 (Burra illustrated "The Book of Judith") Poe, Edgar Allan, The Tell-Tale Heart, London: John Lehmann Ltd, 1948 Ramuz, C. F., The Triumph of Death, London: Routledge, 1946 Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, London: Paul Elek (Camden Classics), 1948 Wolfe, Humbert, ABC of the Theatre, London: Cresset Press, 1932