Andersen / Burroughs: Cut-Outs and Cut-Ups

Focusing on the cut-outs and cut-ups of Hans Christian Andersen and William Seward Burroughs, this exhibitionis the first to compare these legendary writers and fascinating, but little known, visual artists. Hailing from different origins and different periods, Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) and William Seward Burroughs (1914-1997) nevertheless shared many significant connections. Both were highly productive and revolutionary writers, intrepid travelers, larger-than-life personalities who developed important collaborative relationships, and visionaries who had a deep and long engagement with the visual arts. Key to the 124 works is their creators’ mutual engagement with cutting out images, involving silhouettes, shadows, and stencils; their use of brilliant colors and metallics, and their rich and evocative vocabulary of images closely related to their writings. Loans for the exhibition are being drawn from major public and private collections and foundations. The Andersen material consists of drawings, cut-outs and picture books of original collages. The Burroughs artworks include paintings on paper and wood, stencils, and collaborations with artist and friend Brion Gysin, such as the Dreamachine, 1961, a flicker device that produces visual stimuli, as well as original page layouts for The Third Mind, 1978.

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, in 1805, the son of a washerwoman and a shoemaker. Moving to Copenhagen to pursue an acting career, Andersen attended Copenhagen University. He published his first poem in 1827. Throughout his life he wrote a number of plays and travel books, although he is now most widely celebrated for his fairytales. In the 1850s and 1860s, Andersen made unique picture books as gifts for children, working occasionally on these projects with friends and patrons. Andersen died in 1875. William Seward Burroughs was born in 1914 in St Louis to a wealthy family. He studied at Harvard and travelled to Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Morocco between 1945 and 1950. In the 1950s, after meeting artist and writer Brion Gysin, he experimented with the visual arts and especially the cut-up technique developed by Gysin. During this same time he completed his most acclaimed novel Naked Lunch, published in 1959. He subsequently lived in Paris, London, and Lawrence, Kansas, where he died in 1997. Burroughs published several novels and novellas, and continued to experiment within the visual field throughout his life.

The exhibition is curated by Hendel Teicher, independent curator and art historian. Following its opening in Dublin, the exhibition will travel to museums in Europe and the United States.

A fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition. Contributors include notable Andersen and Burroughs scholars Jens Andersen, Francine Prose, Raymond Foye and José Ferez Kuri. The catalogue also includes existing texts by Hans Christian Andersen and William Seward Burroughs, an essay by Hendel Teicher and a foreword by Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA.

Cut-Outs and Cut-Ups:
Hans Christian Andersen and William Seward Burroughs
Hans Christian Andersen, William S. Burroughs
Kurator: Hendel Teicher