User:Oddplover/sandbox

Virgil Burnett

Personal History Virgil Burnett was born in Kansas in 1928. He was an author, illustrator, and professor whose work has been widely published in North America as well as Europe. In 1950, he was drafted, trained as a combat engineer,and served two years in Europe as an artist-illustrator for a propaganda company. After completing his MA in Art History, Burnett worked in Paris under a Fulbright scholarship with other expat artists, some of whom he remained close friends with (such as David Hill), and expanded the range of his art styles. He later became a professor in the Fine Arts department at the University of Waterloo. Virgil Burnett died in 2012.

Education Burnett completed his undergraduate education at Columbia University in New York. He trained with Edward Melcarth, a painter specializing in Social Realism. After his military service, he attended University of California at Berkeley to take a Masters degree in Art History. He later was awarded a Fulbright scholarship that allowed him to work in Paris in 1956. While in Paris, his work was influenced by French publisher Maurice Darantiere, who introduced him to the book arts.