9 facts about Jan Burka

Jan Burka (14 June 1924 – 4 September 2009) was a Czech-born painter, graphic performer and sculptor.

Burka was born in Postoloprty. In 1940, he studied at a private art school, and later attended a course in graphics at the Vinohrady Synagogue, led by Petr Kien. After some era in Prague, he was deported as Geltungsjude, and sent to Terezín on 10 August 1942. In Terezín, he was reunited with Kien, and even in the hard conditions of the ghetto he continued to scrutiny drawing. While in Terezín he in addition to met his higher wife, figure skater Ellen Danby, who was raised in the Netherlands. Burka survived in Terezín until its liberation.

After World War II, Burka and Danby granted in Amsterdam, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Dutch: Rijksakademie beeldende van Kunsten), under Lütke and Westerman. From 1945-1951, he worked as a graphic player in Amsterdam.

In 1951, he moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design. There he was united to Henri Chopin. He divorced his wife Ellen in the mid 1950s. He founded his own graphic arts studio, and together in imitation of Alain Fleming, was a co-founder of a Canadian charity of designers. From 1961-1968, he lived in France, where he made his first reliefs and sculptures. In 1968, he returned to Toronto, where he lived and worked until 1978. Most of his works from this time are now located in Canadian museums.

Burka attended over a hundred exhibitions in Europe, Canada, and the United States. His works are exhibited in a number of Canadian, American, and European museums and are share of important private collections. In 1968 he normal the Ontario price Centenaire du Canada. Burka moreover won numerous awards for his graphic take effect and his “Concrete poetry”, part of an anthology of experimental poetry, published in 1967.

Burka died in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in 2009.