Alberto Burri : the trauma of painting

Name/Title

Alberto Burri : the trauma of painting

Entry/Object ID

N9500.B92.A5

Description

Published to accompany a major retrospective exhibition, this title showcases the pioneering work of Italian artist Alberto Burri (1915-1995). Exploring the beauty and complexity of Burri's process-based works, the exhibition positions the artist as a central and singular protagonist of postwar art. Burri is best known for his series of Sacchi (sacks) made of stitched and patched remnants of torn burlap bags, often combined with fragments of discarded clothing. Far less familiar are his other series, which this exhibition represents in depth: Catrami (tars), Gobbi (hunchbacks), Muffe (molds), Bianchi (whites), Legni (woods), Ferri (irons), Combustioni plastiche (plastic combustions), Cretti and Cellotex works. Burri's work both demolished and reconfigured the Western pictorial tradition, while reconceptualizing modernist collage. Using unconventional materials, he moved beyond the painted surfaces and mark making of American Abstract Expressionism and European Art Informel. Burri's unprecedented approaches to manipulating humble substances -- and his abject picture-objects -- also profoundly influenced Arte Povera, Neo-Dada and Process art.

Acquisition

Source (if not Accessioned)

Nancy Spector

Notes

Gift of Nancy Spector, December 2020.

Lexicon

Search Terms

art--italy, artist monographs, collage, exhibitions, mixed media (art)

Legacy Lexicon

Category

Exhibition catalog

Book Details

Author

Emily Braun, Megan Fontanella, Carol Stringari, Alberto Burri

Publisher

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Place Published

City

New York, NY

Date Published

2015

Call No.

N9500.B92.A5

ISBN

892075236, 9780892075232

Notes

Length: 278