Alberto Burri

Burri's work, anti-establishment in terms of the formulations of the decorative nature of abstraction in post-war Europe, perseveres with the radical interventions of subject matter, leading him to use a distinctive method of developing pictorial fields. While other artists give priority to immediacy, expressive instinct and gestures in their approaches to pictorial subject matter, Burri aspires to construct compositions based on equilibrium.

His explorations into “polimaterismo” cause him to renounce academic rules on painting altogether and break away from traditional two-dimensional surfaces. With the Sacchi (Sack) pieces Burri attracts widespread attention, causing a huge scandal. He subsequently experiments with the Ferri (Iron) pieces and the Legni (wood) compositions. The Plastica (Plastic) works denote Burri's ingenuity that begins in the Sixties and lasts for almost a decade as he burns the material, just as he had done previously with paper and wood, using it like a brush. In the Seventies he creates his series Cretti (cracks), supported by the discovery of cellotexi, containing kaolin and glue, while the series Nero e oro (Black and Gold) portrays the elegance of his later work. Burri is considered one of the pillars of 20th century Italian art, alongside Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni.