"When I sit here and look out of the window, I see unidentifiable forms in the leaf tonal patterns in the trees. I see lines, I see edges, I see abstraction. I don’t see the trees to reproduce them the way they are. I see a pattern of grey-scale changes from black through to white; I see a tonal set-up. I see a very clear graphic image made from the tonal pattern that affects the various greens, from sap and leaf greens through to viridian and green-blue. The grey-scale tonal effect of parts in shadow, in half-shadows, and the parts that are being hit by brilliant sunlight, create a texture for me- a surface. I see two-dimensionally. Everything is surface, flat on a canvas"

(Dennis Burton, 1977)

Dennis Burton was born in Lethbridge, Alberta In 1933. He attended the Ontario College of Art, where he received the R.S. McLaughlin Scholarship and the J.F.M. Scholarship in 1954, and the R.C.A. Scholarship in 1955, graduating in 1956. He also studied art at the University of Southern California (n.d.) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine (1959).

He was the Director of the New School of Art in Toronto, from 1971 to 1977, and was one of the founders (1965) and President of Arts’ Sake Inc.: the Institute for Visual Arts (1977-1978). He taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts (1974) and the University of Lethbridge (1976 and 1989). Dennis Burton was Artist-In-Residence at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver (1979/80) and became a full time instructor in 1980 where he is currently teaching.

Dennis Burton has had solo exhibitions of his work at the Gallery of Contemporary Art, Toronto (1957), Park Gallery, Toronto (1959), Isaacs Gallery, Toronto (1962, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1976), Michel Thomas Galleries, Los Angeles (1962), New Brunswick Museum, Saint John (1965), Studio Art Gallery, Vancouver (1966), McIntosh Memorial Art Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London (1968), Hart House, University of Toronto (1966), University of Lethbridge, Alberta (1976), Lynwood Art Centre, Simcoe (1980), Retrospective Cardigan-Milne Gallery, Winnipeg (1980).

Major Group exhibitions include Biennial Exhibitions of Canadian Painting National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1957, 1961, 1965, 1968), Four Canadians: Burton, Hodgson, Weisman, Nakamura Art Gallery of Ontario (1957), Biennial Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (1958), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (1962, 1964, 1968), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1964), Canadian Painting Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester (1962), 2nd Biennial of Canadian Sculpture National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1963/64), 3 Plus 1 circulating art exhibition through the Art Institute of Ontario (1964/65), Polychrome Construction Isaacs Gallery, Toronto (1965), Outdoor Exhibition Sculptor’s Society of Canada, Stratford (1965), The Satirical In Art York University, Toronto (1966), Survey ‘70 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Art Gallery of Ontario (1970), Toronto Painting 1953-1965 National Gallery of Canada and Art Gallery of Ontario (1972), Contemporary Ontario Art Inaugural Exhibition of the Art Gallery of Ontario (1974), 1st Dalhousie Drawing Exhibition Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax (1975), Ontario Now Art Gallery of Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (1975), Celebration Of The Body Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston (1976), The Ontario Community Collects Art Gallery of Ontario (1975/76), Abstractions Olympic Games, Montreal (1976) and Dennis Burton: Retrospective Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa traveling to the Art Gallery of Memorial University, Newfoundland, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, N.S., Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, the Banff Centre, School of Fine Arts, The Saskatoon Gallery and Conservatory Corporation, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and the Sir George Williams Art Galleries, Concordia University, Montreal (1977/78), Gordon Rayner/Dennis Burton Moore Gallery, Toronto (1998).