Jan Burka

Biography

Burka was born in Postoloprty, the younger son from an intermarriage. In 1940, he studied at a private art school, and then attended a course in graphics at the Vinohrady Synagogue, led by Petr Kien. After some time in Prague, he was deported as Geltungsjude, and sent to Terezín on 10 August 1942. In Terezín, he was reunited with Petr Kien, and even in the difficult conditions of the ghetto he continued to study drawing. While in Terezín he also met his future wife, figure skater Ellen Burka, née Danby, who was raised in the Netherlands. Burka survived in Terezín until its liberation.

After World War II, Burka and Danby settled 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 artist in Amsterdam.

In 1951, he moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design. There he was linked to Henri Chopin. He divorced his wife Ellen in the mid 1950s. He founded his own graphic arts studio, and together with Alain Fleming, was a co-founder of a Canadian group 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 period are now located in Canadian museums.

Burka attended more than 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 part of important private collections. In 1968 he received the Ontario price Centenaire du Canada. Burka also won numerous awards for his graphic work and his "Concrete poetry", part of an anthology of experimental poetry, published in 1967.

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