Alberto Burri 

Throughout his career, Italian artist Alberto Burri (1915–1995) stretched the limits of what techniques and materials might be used to make an art work by variously sewing, cutting, burning, and gluing a range of media including burlap, steel, PVC, and wood. Born in 1915 in Città di Castello, Italy, Burri went to medical school and served as a doctor during the Second World War. In 1943 his unit was captured and interred, and during his stay at an American prisoner-of-war camp, Burri to begin to draw and paint. The year after the war ended, he moved to Rome to pursue art professionally, and soon garned critical acclaim. The artist passed away in Nice, France, in 1995. During his lifetime, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston organized survey exhibitions of his work. In 2015 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum posthumously celebrated him with the much-lauded retrospective, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting.

Selected Artworks

    • Alberto Burri
    • Nero cretto, 1979
    • Acrovinyl on Celotex
    • 19½ × 27⅜ inches (49.5 × 69.5 cm)
    • Alberto Burri
    • Cretto bianco, 1958
    • Acrovinyl on Celotex
    • 15³⁄₁₆ × 20½ inches (38.5 × 52 cm)
    • Alberto Burri
    • Sacco, 1956
    • Oil and Vinavil on burlap and canvas
    • 27½ × 15¾ inches (69.8 × 40 cm)
    • Alberto Burri
    • Sacco e oro, 1953
    • Burlap, thread, acrylic, newsprint, gold leaf, and PVA
    • 33⅞ × 39¾ inches (86 × 101 cm)

Selected publications

Selected Press