The Ron Burton Collection

[vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content_no_spaces" content_placement="middle" enable_parallax="true" parallax_background="10068"][vc_column][vc_empty_space height="50px"][vc_custom_heading source="post_title" font_container="tag:h1|font_size:48|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff" use_theme_fonts="yes" el_class="rb-header"][vc_empty_space height="50px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Ron Burton is a famous, now retired, artist from Indianapolis and is renowned locally as the most famous in Indianapolis history when it comes to motorsports artwork. Ron dabbled in many facets of motorsports from photography to being a pivotal role in pit crews for many teams such as AJ Foyt Racing, Interscope Racing, Spirit of Indiana and Menards Racing. Over the years Ron developed many meaningful relationships with many of the drivers and began creating artwork for many of the current drivers in the mid 60’s, such as Foyt, Clark and Unser just to name a few. Ron always created artwork relevant to that drivers running of the 500 so his work always carried great sentimental value. Ron’s helmet collection first started when he received 3 helmets from Bill Marval back in 1966 as a loan that was never paid back, thus starting his now famed helmet collection. The three helmets were; a 1964 Parnelli Jones, 1966 Mario Andretti and a 1966 Al Unser. Over the years many drivers would trade their race worn helmets for original commissioned artwork from Ron. Between the years of 1966 and 2010 Ron’s collection amassed to over 170 helmets from various motorsports disciplines ranging from Dirt racing to IndyCar to Sprint cars. These helmets were famously on display at the Union Jack Pub just down the street from the Speedway. Ron was also famous for his work for the Miller Brewing Company. Each year he was commissioned to create a special one-of piece for the winner of the Indy 500 which would be placed on display at the Wall of fame at the Indianapolis Museum. Lithograph prints and posters were also created from each commissioned piece and used in many forms of advertising such as Gas Stations, Bars as well as made available for sale to the public. Many of Ron’s paintings hung on the walls of the old Speedway Motel, which was famous back in its day for many celebrity visits as well as a backdrop for many blockbuster movies. After the Motel was closed and torn down all of the original artwork returned to Ron’s studio and has since been stored away. The helmet collection was once close to being purchased by famed race driver Tony Stewart, but the two sides could not come to an agreement. It comes with great pleasure to announce that we’ve now acquired Ron’s studio, steps away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as well as his entire original artwork and helmet collection. We’ve also acquired all of Ron’s original slides, negatives, photos and original signed lithograph prints. It truly is an honour to have the opportunity to continue to celebrate and honor Ron’s career while also giving fans, for the first time ever, an opportunity to purchase a piece of motorsports history. Ron celebrated all forms of motorsports from the Speedway’s history of IndyCar, Formula 1, MotoGP as well as Sprintcar, Drag Racing and many more. This collection truly is a motorsports fan’s haven.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][be_product_category category="ron-burton" per_page="48" columns="6" orderby="" order="desc" is_slider="disable" animation_delay="1"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][/vc_row]