Plaza Shindig, circa 1975
Andrew Burns (American, active 20th Century)
colored pencil on paper, 13 1/2 x 16 3/4 in. (34.3 x 42.5 cm)
Gift of Andrew Burns, 1976
3614.23D
Andrew (Andy) Burns was born in Houston, TX circa 1950. He traveled around Colorado and New Mexico before returning to Texas where he made his living doing manual labor. He often persuaded his bosses to give him time off to sketch his fellow workers and built up a portfolio of colored pencil drawings. Burns had his first one-man show at Houston’s Contemporary Art Museum in 1978. The Texas Monthly said about him: Andy Burns is an itinerant worker, a poet of the commonplace in the best tradition of American folk art.
Reflective Questions and Activities:
| E | What does this drawing tell us about life on the Santa Fe Plaza at this time? What kind of music might be played at this time? | |
| E | Does your town have a plaza where concerts take place? How are they similar or different from this one? | |
| E/S | Both of these painting depict people socializing on the Plaza. What does the attire being worn by the people say about them? How does Sloan and Burns portray the people at the time of these paintings? |  |
| E/S | If you have visited the Santa Fe Plaza before, how has it changed since these paintings were painted in1920 and 1975? How is it the same? |