Maurice Lingham Burns Jr.

The Spirit of Cool: Remembering Santa Fe’s Own Maurice ‘Mobu’ Burns

Santa Fe lost one of its brightest colors, and a fair bit of its cool, with the passing of the extraordinarily

talented Maurice “Mobu” Burns (April 6, 1937–November 8, 2025): visionary painter, jazz philosopher,

and unrepentant original. A MacDowell Fellow and Pollock-Krasner award recipient, Maurice remixed

the worlds of the Harlem Renaissance, Pop Art, and the School of London into a rhythm all his own. He

painted beyond boundaries, creating canvases where jazz met geometry and Einstein might wear a

headdress.

Born in segregated Talladega, Alabama, and shaped by roots spanning Africa, Scotland, and the Choctaw

Nation, Maurice learned early how to live between worlds, and later, how to paint them into one. Before

art claimed him fully, Maurice served overseas in the U.S. Army, training in advanced electronics and

meteorology and spending time in Okinawa and Korea, experiences that helped shape the worldview he

would later pour into his canvases. Though he started out crunching numbers in computer science, in his

late twenties he traded algorithms for oil paint and never looked back. The GI Bill took him to the Rhode

Island School of Design, where he studied under sculptor John Torres and met the celebrated artist Jacob

Lawrence, who told him, “You are born Black, and whatever comes out of you will be a reflection of

that.” Maurice took that advice and ran with it: through pop culture, jazz clubs, and the ghosts of history,

remixing it all into something dazzlingly his own.

After earning his B.F.A. at RISD and his Master’s at the Royal College of Art in London, he moved to

Santa Fe. There, he helped establish a crucial program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in

conjunction with RISD, allowing Indigenous students to earn college credits for their work after a twoyear

course of study. In Santa Fe, he became an integral part of a group of local artists including T.C.

Cannon and Fritz Scholder, among others.

Maurice didn’t just make art; he made meaning, and sometimes, mischief. He was known to say that the

only thing more dangerous than an idea was a blank canvas, and he treated both with equal respect. For

forty years in his Santa Fe studio, he chased beauty, complexity, and truth, usually with Coltrane playing

in the background.

Maurice didn’t just paint; he rewrote the rules. The man, the myth, the math: forever cool, forever

original. Santa Fe will never be quite as hip without him.

Maurice passed away surrounded by family, friends, and his art. He was preceded in death by his parents,

Maurice and Ruby Burns, his sisters Alice Marshall and Jacqueline Harrison, his daughter Angie Daniels,

his nieces Vickie Harrison and Jacqueline Lott and nephew Tony Harrison. He is survived by his

daughters Marcia Blanchett, Veva Burns, Mara Burns (James Buckley), and Mariah Welch (TJ Welch);

his grandchildren Maurcelia Blanchett, Darrell Boner II, Anabelle Sanchez, Jesse O’Grady, Liam

O'Grady, Quincy Welch, and Murphy Welch. His nieces Vicki Marshall, Tori Dixon, Mallorie Marshall

Berger, his nephews Michael Harrison and Eric Marshall; and by everyone who called him “Brother

Maurice.”

In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations in Maurice’s honor to the Institute of American Indian

Arts.

give.iaia.edu/campaign/632949/donate