alberto burri - the subject of matter

ALBERTO BURRITHE SUBJECT OF MATTER

ierimonti gallery

ALBERTO BURRITHE SUBJECT OF MATTER

“If I don’t have a material, I use another one. It is all the same. I choose to use poor materials to prove that they could be still useful. The poorness of a medium is not a symbol: it a device for painting.”

Alberto Burri

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“My first painting is like my last.”

This concise statement – one of the few rarely made by the artist – encloses the entire artistic career of Alberto Burri. Although he complained about be-ing remembered only for his sacks - as they are often considered by critics the artist’s signature – Burri explored different techniques, material, and processes to express variations of the same subject: the sublimation of matter.On this point, we can detect a reminiscence of his first sacks in the last Cel-lotex, through the manipulation of disparate materials such as iron, wood, plastic, celotex. Critics have seen a number of analogies between Burri’s life and work. Trained as a doctor, he experienced World War II as a medical officer and was sent to a camp in Texas, where he began to paint. The parallel with the surgical prac-tice has been suggested since his early works, especially in the artist’s constant activity of cutting, patching, burning, and stitching. It is easy to associate the touch of red paint to blood, the stitching with sutures and the fissure or orifice to surgery or healing. If we consider medicine as a “practice closer to life more than any other forms of science and art”(1), Burri used his former training in order to evoke life and the passing of time in his paintings. The vitality of Burri’s work lays in the representation of life from the feminine sensuality, universal symbol of creation and carnal pleasure, to the final deterioration of matter. It is after the first Muffe – which are still pictorial but alluding to the idea of collage - that Burri began to transfer scars, abrasions, holes on his paintings. By creating a material surface with burlap sacks, he transformed the painting into a living, evolving, growing body with its own identity. As brilliantly de-

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scribed in Maurizio Calvesi’s words “Why use paint or any other impasto ma-terial to suggest the ferment of matter, when instead you could use matter and even objects to suggest the beauty of paint? In the first case, you have a degra-dation, the characteristic degradation of a great deal of informal painting, that is the degradation of paint to matter, to a dark, confused, organic evidence. In the second case, we have had precisely with Burri a process of upgrading, which occurred while a large part of informal art was just beginning its de-cline: an ascending process from the mute, squalid presence of matter and object to the level of art as dramatic representation and real of beauty.” (2) “If I don’t have a material, I use another one. It is all the same. I choose to use poor materials to prove that they could still be useful. The poorness of a medium is not a symbol: it is a device for painting.” Burri worked with primi-tive, meaningless, unorthodox materials, mundane objects, manipulating them to release their vitality.In the mid-1950s Burri began to use fire to torch the matter, creating his first combustions, technique that he applied to wood, iron and later to plastic. Us-ing fire as a brush, Burri has sublimated not only the act of painting but also the consumptive nature of matter. In the cretti – a mixture of zinc white and kaolin on thick square or rectan-gular surfaces covered with vinyl glues left to dry – the process of painting becomes more uncontrolled, almost depending on more casual factors. The cracks, generated in the drying process, follow accidental elements more than the artist’s will. The matter is left free to finally express itself. At the same time the energy of the act - revealed in the combustions - is less present in the cretti, favoring a sort of universal spatial quietness, expanding the canvas to the scale of the city and the landscape. Like scars, they are metaphor for a land impoverished of its sap: a residual body of an emptied life, and once again, a revelation the metamorphosis of matter.

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BIANCO E MUFFE1952

Oil, pumice on wood3 1/6 x 3 15/16 in

Catalogo Generale Albizzini n.225

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SACCO1954

Sack on Cellotex 2 17/48 x 3 15/18 in

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PAGINA1955

Paper, combustion, vinyl glue, gold on paper9 27/32 x 6 11/16 in


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CRETTO1971

Acrovinilico on black cardboard4 11/12 x 8 1/12 in


SAFFO 1973-1976Series of 10 Mixed Media used for the litographs included in the book ‘Saffo’ (poems translated by Emilio Villa) Single PiecePaper Umbria, 10 15/64 x 6 31/32 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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SAFFO9 5/6 x 6 9/10 in

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PRINTS

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Burri’s graphic works appears at first sight to be a parallel to his paintings. If one wants to express it musically, like a canon, the graphics taking up the first voice with a dialogue that suggests the same them but with a slightly different timbre. Put in this way however, one is left dissatisfied; one feels it to be true, but only up to a point. Above all it is the layout which is important.This, in the case of etching, means the background spacing, and here there is no comparison with painting which requires a frame or a passé-partout to blend its own space with that of the wall or room. It is not all one with the frame, even if this were there originally, and there are very few cases indeed where the frame has been called upon to collaborate as an integral part with the figurations. With etchings one realizes very quickly that the white border is for that reason of less value, also from a commercial point of view. This is because it is “amputated” in its space as an etching, not in that which it rep-resents which remains intact.A similar contrast can be seen when comparing etching with drawing. In a drawing the outline is extemporary, always present and its greater merit is to surprise us with its internal gestation of the image. On the contrary, the out-line of the etching is in the past and nothing shows this better than the various stages of the etching itself.While a preparatory drawing goes towards an image which is forming on the horizon, one does not know if will be produced or in the end how it will be produced. Every stage of an etching, announces only itself. The successive image reabsorbs and re-elaborates the previous one. With etching there is an irreversible past, with drawing a projection towards the future. This means that even the particular of the previous stage undergoes a change. One could say this contrast is valid for drawing and etching, not for etching and painting.Painting too is in the past, its still, present state does not look to the future, but like etching to an unlimited present. Yet even this comparison seems simplis-tic, and there is nothing better than Burri’s graphics to explain why. There are in fact in Burri’s works, parallel series in which the same plastic theme is real-ized in both the paintings and the etchings, to such an extent that one might consider the etching to be a smaller version of the painting. The layout here is important. The background spacing on the paper focuses the image in such a way that the margin has not connection with the wall, as the frame has for the painting, but an indissoluble “field of ” the image as if the etching carried with it its own invisible wall. The concept of this field then helps us to un-derstand the particular structure of the image in the etching, which in its own spacing has more than one echo chamber, more than that, the very formality of apparition, like the silence which in the music of Weber I just as important as the note, in fact has almost more importance, away from any tonality, than

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the note itself. If the etching can do without that background spacing, then we are talking simply of a reproduction, of a painting which though admirable in technique offers nothing extra and is, if anything, a feable copy.Burri’s work as a painter and his graphic work run side by side. In those rare and precious book of poetry By Emilio Villa (going back to 1953) Burri traced with his pen (besides small inserts some of which were in gold leaf) irrevers-ible and unalterable lines as if he had done them with a burin: one could al-ready see the difference in the form of these graphics compared with painting and drawing because the drawing itself was a prelude to the etching. It is cer-tainly not due to chance that the greater part of Burri’s graphic activity took place from 1964 onwards at the same time as his latest period of painting, when large black stains like Polyphemus’ eye stand out against a white back-ground or are surrounded by a veil of fog, a plastic membrane. These vague peremptory forms, non-gestural but fixed and unmistakable, can be compared to words that grammars now define as meaningless. But these words were not empty of meaning in a far off past. They had a precise importance in a remote stage of our language, even if now their role is simply to articulate speech. These empty words in Burri’s concept of art seem as if they had been thought of with regard to print making rather than painting. Like houses and hillocks that rise out of the flood, they are centred in the print’s white area which is the field where tensions, originated by the image, are balanced.The austere image projected on the graphic plane is subtly internalized within a veil of plastic, the white background and the wide margin of the paper. The special effect in these prints is rendered by this sudden placement in depth, but like a closed book. The etching shows the spatial outcome, the undoubted figurative enrichment when compared with painting.Compared with its pictorial matrix in the Cretto etching, the background spacing, although minimal and the frayed margins of the paper – while neutralizing the depth of the cracks – place it in a planned graphic dimension. Even the play of light comes through in a modified form. The etched paper functions as a reflector, the light comes out as if it were projected by a glass dome.The ambiguity of painting “on mirrors” lies in this placing of the light be-hind the painting: it remains an if painted on an opaque surface. It imbues the etched paper with light and is seemingly transparent when reduced to its outlines. From whence comes the great brightness of Burri’s etchings on a white background, not only in the “Plastiche” and white “Cretti” but also in the “Combustioni” and the small silkscreen prints. These will come a surprise to those who can only visualize Burri in his black and white works with their occasional use of a surly red or a smear of yellow as in the “Combustioni”. It

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seems in fact impossible that Valter Rossi the printer, by using graphic tech-niques and overlapping plates, has succeeded faithfully in reproducing this “burnt residue”, preserving all that is volatile and unstable in these “Com-bustioni”.The narrow border which surrounds the black Cretto is also black. Therefore the light which should be produced by the edge disappears. It is substituted by a dense shadow which spreads across the cracked surface and rises over it like a deep tide to rest in the fissures. But it is clear that the ride the etching receives is the same, but the negative, a shadow like a light that has been extinguished.These lines were eight years ago, when it was not possible to foresee what importance the small temperas to which he devoted himself, appeared then to be an almost marginal exercise, a gentle almost secret diversion.I admit that I was a mistaken in considering that exercise as something sec-ondary, marginal to the great epic extent of his major works. It was as if, escaping from his implacable rule of severity, the artist were allowing himself a pause in which to gather together again everything he had dismissed as an unlawful seduction. Color in Burri’s work had been reduced to an almost rigid dichotomy of black and white, with an occasional flash of red like blood. His work had been reduced to an opposition of light and shade, of the smooth and the granulous, of the bright and the opaque and now in the end, there poured forth in uncontrolled rivulets, the shades of yellow and violet of red and amaranth, the greens of the grass and of the sea, the blues of the sky and of young irises. In the temperas there is the revenge one might say of the substratum, Burri’s original substratum as a painter, Burri who threw out color, as if it were superfluous, retaining it only when it appeared as a shout, a tear, a sigh, rather than as a chromatic area.It is here that an interest in Burri’s graphic work increases beyond measure, not only as something in itself, but for the undoubted reflection it has on his major works.The colors, endless in the refined nature of their shades, succeed again in op-posing one another in their diversity, not grouping themselves together from affinity. It is like looking at a collection of semi-precious stones, close together but unable to communicate with one another, a collection where each color isolates itself from the next, almost horror at the idea of joining it. They are no longer pure colors, but rather chosen in their most different and varied shades, remaining as pure colors in their own place like a brilliant “cham-plevé”. The result might even be called joyous, but I dare not use the word, because it is clear that in the very incommunicability of these colors so near to one another there is still a warning, a trap: everything might reduce itself once more into ashes and return to the depths of the night.

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MUFFA 1957Etching and color litograph 12 2/5 x 15 13/24 inPaper Fabriano Rosaspina, 17 25/48 x 20 13/48 inEdition from 1/150 to 150/150; 12 printing proofs numbered from 1/12 to 12/12 and 15 artist’s proofs from I/XV to XV/XVEdizioni Castelli, Roma

BIBLIOGRAPHYBurri, Grafica opera completa.

Città di Castello: Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini - Collezione Burri, 2003, p.19

VARIAZIONI 1962THREE ETCHINGS INCLUDED IN THE POETRY BOOK ‘VARIAZIONI’ BY EMILIO VILLAPaper Fabriano Rosaspina, 10 1/4 x 15 3/4 in (cover); 10 1/4 x 7 1/12 in (interior)Edition from 1/75 to 75/75 and 5 authors’ copies from 1/5 to 5/5Fondazione Origine, RomePrinted by 2RC, Rome


Città di Castello: Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini - Collezione Burri, 2003, p.21-23

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BOOK’S COVEREtching, aquatint and collage with gold leaf

10 1/4 x 15 3/4 in

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FIRST PAGE (CRETTO) OF THE BOOK ‘VARIAZIONI’Etching and aquatint10 1/6 x 7 1/12 in

SECOND PAGE OF THE BOOK ‘VARIAZIONI’Etching, aquatint and collage with gold leaf

10 1/6 x 7 1/12 in

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COMBUSTIONE 1963-1964Engraving, etching and aquatint, 13 2/5 x 10 1/6 inPaper Fabriano Rosaspina, 27 29/32 x 20 5/64 inEdition from 1/110 to 110/110 and 17 roman numbers from I/XVII to XVII/XVIIPrinted by 2RC, Rome



COMBUSTIONI 1965Series of 6 engravings, etching and aquatintPaper Fabriano Rosaspina, 25 13/64 x 18 57/64 inEdition from 1/80 to 80/80 and 11 Roman numbers from I/XI to XI/XIPrinted by 2RC and Marlborough Gallery, Rome



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COMBUSTIONE 114 61/64 x 12 1/64 in

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COMBUSTIONE OMAGGIO A UNGARETTI 1968Included in the Ungaretti’s book of poems ‘Dialogo’Etching and aquatint, 11 5/12 x 7 2/3 in Paper Fabriano Rosaspina, 12 1/64 x 8 5/64 inEdition from 1/59 to 59/59Printed by 2RC, Rome



CRETTI 1971Series of 8 cretti (7 black and 1 white) - Cretto nero BEtching and aquatint, 26 3/8 x 37 61/64 in Paper Fabriano Rosaspina, 26 3/8 x 37 61/64 inEdition from 1/90 to 90/90 and XV Roman numbers from I/XV to XV/XVPrinted by 2RC, Rome



SERIGRAFIA 1973 - 1976Serigraph, 9 35/48 x 7 1/48 inPaper Fabriano Rosaspina, 16 59/64 x 13 25/32 inEdition from 1/90 to 90/90 and 15 Roman numbers from I/XV to XV/XVPrinted by 2RC, Rome



TRITTICO B 1973-1976Series of 3 serigraphs Paper Fabriano Rosaspina, 16 59/64 x 13 25/32 inEdition from 1/90 to 90/90 and 15 Roman numbers from I/XV to XV/XVPrinted by 2RC, Rome



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SERIGRAFIA 1B9 31/48 x 6 47/48 in

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SERIGRAFIE 1973 - 1976Series of 6 serigraphsSerigrafia 5, 9 37/48 x 6 43/48 inPaper Fabriano Rosaspina, 16 59/64 x 13 25/32 inEdition from 1/90 to 90/90 and 15 Roman numbers from I/XV to XV/XVPrinted by 2RC, Rome



ACQUAFORTE 1977Series of 7 etchingsPaper Miliani Fabriano ‘Roma’, 12 63/64 x 9 29/64 inEdition from 1/50 to 50/50 and 10 Roman numbers from I/X to X/XPrinted by 2RC, Rome



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ACQUAFORTE 18 17/64 x 5 33/64 in

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ACQUAFORTE 68 17/64 x 5 33/64 in

ALVAR AALTO 1977 Included in the volume ‘Omaggio italiano ad Alvar Aalto’Serigraph, 9 31/48 x 6 11/16 inPaper Fabriano, 13 25/32 x 9 61/64 inEdition from 1/90 to 90/90 and 20 Roman numbers from I/XX to XX/XXPrinted by 2RC, Rome



TRITTICO E 1979-1981 Series of 3 serigraphsPaper Fabriano Rosaspina, 16 59/64 x 13 25/32 inEdition from 1/90 to 90/90 and 15 Roman numbers from I/XV to XV/XVPrinted by Vigna Antoniniana Stamperia d’artePublisher 2RC, Rome



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SERIGRAFIA 1-E9 31/48 x 6 47/48 in

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PICCOLA SERIGRAFIA 1981Serigraph, 2 35/48 X 2 7/8 inPaper Fabriano Rosaspina, 12 19/32 x 9 41/64 inEdition from 1/90 to 90/90 and 15 Roman numbers from I/XV to XV/XVPrinted by Vigna Antoniniana Stamperia d’artePublisher 2RC, Rome



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This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition:“Alberto Burri: The Subject of Matter”October 2 - November 23, 2015Ierimonti Gallery, New York

All rights reservedThis catalogue may not be reproduced in whole or in part, or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic media or mechanical, or stored in a retrieval system without the written permission of Ierimonti Gallery.

Catalogue Curator: Christian Piscitelli Catalogue Coordinator: Francesca Cigola

Special thanks to Cesare Luigi Caini without whom this exhibition would not have been possible; Federica Bonotto, Alexandra Fanelli, Vittoria Pedretti.

We would like to thank those individuals who aided in the process of making this exhibition and catalogue a reality. Sincere love and appreciation goes to Famiglia Muzzin, Collezione Privata.

IMAGE CREDITS© 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, RomePhotos by Dario Lasagni

TEXT CREDITSPage 7-8: Maurizio Calvesi, Alberto Burri, Milan: Fabbri, 1971 Page 29-31: Cesare Brandi, Burri Opere Grafiche, Rome: 2RC Editrice, 1981

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alberto burri - the subject of matter

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