Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
1933 - 2013
Canadian modernist Dennis Burton was born in Lethbridge, Ontario, and was best known for his Garterbeltmania series of erotic paintings. He attended the Ontario College of Art from 1952 to 1956, and worked for CBC as a graphic designer until 1960.

An exhibition in 1955 of Painters Eleven at Toronto’s Hart House inspired him to paint abstracts. He was also influenced by American Abstract Expressionist artists such as Robert Motherwell, Jack Twarkov and Willem de Kooning. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he produced sculpture by welding scrap metal and found materials together.

Burton’s interest in erotic art began as early as 1957, and works such as Smokeshop Sex Marauder and The Game of Life from 1960 were precursors of the further development of this theme in 1964 to 1965. On a trip to New York in 1961 he acquired a manual of sexual anatomy, and he had seen explicit “skin books,” bought by artist Gordon Rayner. By the mid-1960s he was working on the Garterbeltmania series, provocative erotic paintings of women in underwear, painted in a simplified graphic style similar to Pop Art. This work, which brought him national recognition, provoked polarized responses.

Burton showed with Isaacs Gallery in Toronto, and was one of the youngest members in the Isaacs stable. He played saxophone in the Artist’s Jazz Band in Toronto, a pioneering Canadian free-jazz group formed in 1962 by Toronto visual artists associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement and loosely affiliated with the Isaacs Gallery.
From 1970 to 1971 he returned to abstraction, working on a calligraphic series of paintings of black and white shapes that showed his affinity with Motherwell. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Burton explored mixed media painting, text-based works, and large-scale, bold abstracts.

Burton was the co-founder of Toronto’s New School of Art in 1965, and he was its director from 1971 to 1977. He also taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design (1970), Banff School of Fine Arts (1974), University of Lethbridge (1975), Art’s Sake, Toronto (co-founder, 1977) and Emily Carr University, Vancouver (1980 to 1991).

His work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Los Angeles County Museum, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Vancouver Art Gallery, among others.
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Cooks White, Instead of Orange, on a Tabletop Landscape by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $11,700
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Cooks White, Instead of Orange, on a Tabletop Landscape
48 x 48 in, 121.9 x 121.9 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000 CDN
Sold for: $11,700 CDN (premium included)
Fall 2008 - 1st Session on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Edge by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $8,125
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Edge
36 x 48 in, 91.4 x 121.9 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000 CDN
Sold for: $8,125 CDN (premium included)
Made in Ontario featuring Painters Eleven on Thursday, March 25, 2021
Jezebel by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $7,080
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Jezebel
50 x 38 in, 127 x 96.5 cm
oil and collage on canvas
Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000 CDN
Sold for: $7,080 CDN (premium included)
November 2015 - 5th Session on Saturday, November 28, 2015
The Burial by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $6,875
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
The Burial
48 x 48 in, 121.9 x 121.9 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000 CDN
Sold for: $6,875 CDN (premium included)
September 2017 - 4th Session on Thursday, September 28, 2017
Untitled by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $6,435
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Untitled
20 x 20 in, 50.8 x 50.8 cm
oil on canvas
Estimate: $2,000 - $3,000 CDN
Sold for: $6,435 CDN (premium included)
September 2008 - 2nd Session on Thursday, September 25, 2008
Torus Girl by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $6,250
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Torus Girl
60 x 60 in, 152.4 x 152.4 cm
oil and collage on canvas
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000 CDN
Sold for: $6,250 CDN (premium included)
March 2017 - 1st Session on Thursday, March 30, 2017
Jujm by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $6,250
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Jujm
30 x 48 in, 76.2 x 121.9 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000 CDN
Sold for: $6,250 CDN (premium included)
Abstract Art on Thursday, March 26, 2020
Room-Mates #2 by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $5,850
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Room-Mates #2
36 x 24 in, 91.4 x 61 cm
oil on canvas
Estimate: $5,000 - $7,000 CDN
Sold for: $5,850 CDN (premium included)
Spring 2009 - 1st Session on Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Shadows Landing by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $3,750
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Shadows Landing
48 x 60 in, 121.9 x 152.4 cm
oil and aluminum on canvas
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000 CDN
Sold for: $3,750 CDN (premium included)
Made in Ontario on Thursday, March 28, 2019
Unknown Lake by Dennis Eugene Norman Burton sold for $3,510
Dennis Eugene Norman Burton
Unknown Lake
48 x 48 in, 121.9 x 121.9 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000 CDN
Sold for: $3,510 CDN (premium included)
March 2009 - 2nd Session on Thursday, March 26, 2009