The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art presents Alberto Burri: Form and Matter. Alberto Burri (1915-1995) is one of the most important artists of the post-war period. The first major retrospective exhibition of the artist's work to be held in the United Kingdom outlines his creative development between 1947 and 1987. The installation includes works ranging from his early figurative works, to his later pieces created with sacking, metal, plastic, wood, Cellotex and ceramics.
The exhibition is curated by art historian Massimo Duranti, and organized under the patronage of Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini in Città di Castello.
Alberto Burri – About the Artist
The painter, collagist and designer, Alberto Burri, was born in 1915 in Città di Castello, Umbria, central Italy. After qualifying as a doctor at Perugia University, he served with the Italian army in north Africa. In 1943 he was captured by the Allies, and held as a prisoner-of-war of war in Hereford, Texas. It was during this time that he started to paint.
After his release, he settled in Rome, abandoned medicine, and took up art, mounting his first solo exhibition, in 1947, at Rome's Galleria La Margherita. At this time his work was strongly influenced by Expressionism. From 1948 his work became abstract, and in 1949 he started to create paintings with an element of collage, using materials such as sacking and tar, which he often splashed with red paint. The finished work resembled bandages soaked in blood. In 1951, Burri co-founded the Gruppo Origine with Mario Ballocco, Guiseppe Capogrossi, and Ettore Colla.
From the late 1950s his paintings incorporated bits of wood and rusted metal. Burri was the first artist to use simple, everyday, materials in this way. His work preempts the Arte Povera movement (impoverished, or poor, art), a term coined much later in 1967, by the Italian critic Germano Celant (1940-). Burri's work is often compared with the Junk art movement of the USA. Burri held a solo exhibition at the Frumkin Gallery, Chicago, in 1953. He spent much of his time in the USA, where his work was highly successful, and admired by artists such as Cy Twombly (1928-2011) and Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008).
Alberto Burri received numerous prestigious awards, including Third Prize at the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, in 1958; the Premio dell’Ariete in Milan, in 1959; the UNESCO Prize at the São Paulo Bienal, in 1959; the Critics' Prize at the 1960 Venice Biennale; and the Grand Prix at the São Paulo Bienal in 1965. Burri was awarded the Italian Order of Merit in 1994, and is immortalized, in his home town of Città di Castello, with a permanent museum showcasing his work.
Alberto Burri: Form and Matter – Highlights of the Exhibition
Alberto Burri: Form and Matter showcases forty items, including early works such as Procession of the Dead Christ (1946), and Upper Piazza (1947). One of his best-known works, Sacking and Red (1954), shows his use of sacking and red paint. White Cretto, (1975), an abstract created with acrovinyl on Cellotex, represents the artist's later works.
What is the Meaning of Alberto Burri's Paintings?
Burri's paintings have been interpreted in many ways. Some historians have tried to make links to his experience as a doctor during the war, while some claim his work is a commentary on Italy's post-war economic depression. Others have even claimed his use of scrap materials refers to the coarse habits worn by the Franciscan monks located at Assisi, in Burri's home region of Umbria. During his lifetime Burri always denied these associations, preferring not to discuss his art in any context. The artist once said: ″Words are no help to me when I try to speak about my painting...they talk around the picture. What I have to express appears in the picture.″
Alberto Burri: Form and Matter – Exhibition Catalogue
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 128-page catalogue featuring essays by Massimo Duranti and Andrea Baffoni, published by EFFE Fabrizio Fabbri Editore.
Alberto Burri: Form and Matter will be on display from 13th January to 8th April 2012. Further information is available from the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art.
Sources:
- Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
- "Alberto Burri." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved January 09, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404701016.html
Frances Spiegel - Frances Spiegel, B.A. Hons. (Open)., Dip.Eur.Hum., read Art History/European Modern History at the Open University.
