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Burt Chernow: About

Burt Chernow

An artist, art historian, writer, and teacher who began his career teaching art at Greens Farm School. In 1964, Chernow established the Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection. He was also one of the founders of the Westport Arts Center.

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From the Collection

Link to The Drawings of Milton Avery by Burt Chernow in the catalog
Link to Christo and Jeanne-Claude: a biography by Burt Chernow in the catalog
Link to Gabor Peterdi: Paintings by Burt Chernow in the catalog

About Burt Chernow

Burt Chernow (1933-1997) gained acclaim in the art world, winning the Barnum Festival's prize for sculpture in 1966, and for his work as the founding director of the Housatonic Museum of Art. He began teaching art in public schools in Connecticut and New York after serving in the U.S. Army in the mid-1950s. In 1966, he accepted a position at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and in 1974, founded the art museum there. Chernow authored many exhibition catalogs, as well as articles for art journals. His artwork is seen in private collections and was on display at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.

Among his books is Christo and Jeanne-Claude: A Biography, published posthumously. He follows the careers of his friends, Bulgarian Christo Javacheff and his wife and artistic partner, Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon, born in French-controlled Casablanca. The couple—who share the same birthday, June 13, 1935—came from very different backgrounds. When they met in Paris in 1959, he was a poor exile from Communism, while she came from a wealthy French family. Christo's avant-garde minimalist style became popular, first in Paris, and then in New York, and he is best known for his "wrapped" works. Chernow's narrative ends in 1983, but Christo/Jeanne-Claude collaborator Wolfgang Volz adds to the biography with an epilogue about the couple who declared their "artistic interdependence" in 1994. Booklist's Donna Seaman wrote that Christo and Jeanne-Claude "will stand as the keystone biography of a truly revolutionary artist and his soul mate."

Chernow once commented: "Few areas attract as much irrelevant writing as the visual arts. People who read the text that appears with art images deserve thoughtful discussion and insight and some degree of intelligent analysis. The artists deserve no less." Continue reading from Encyclopedia

Link to Westport Local Artists Resource Guide Series