Burri, Alberto

Burri, Alberto
▪ 1996

      Italian artist (b. March 12, 1915, Città di Castello, Italy—d. Feb. 13, 1995, Nice, France), devised collages and abstractions by using such unorthodox materials as old rags, sackcloth, burnt wood, cellophane, rusted metal, and brightly coloured plastic, often scorched or partially melted. Burri trained as a physician at the University of Perugia and served in the army medical corps in North Africa during World War II. He began painting while interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Texas and abandoned medicine entirely when he was repatriated to Rome about 1946. Although Burri's earliest works were conventional landscapes and still lifes, he quickly moved in a new direction with a series of pieces in which he used burlap sacks—stitched together, torn, patched, and splashed with red paint—to evoke powerful images of bloodstained wartime field dressings. His first major exhibition was in Rome in 1947. From the early 1950s, Burri divided his time between Europe and the U.S., where his work influenced young American abstract painters and collagists.

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▪ Italian painter
born March 12, 1915, Città di Castello, Italy
died Feb. 13, 1995, Nice, France

      Italian artist known for his adventurous use of new materials.

      Burri was trained as a physician and began to paint only in 1944, while in a prisoner-of-war camp in Texas. About 1946 he moved to Rome and began to paint seriously. His early works—rags splashed in red paint to simulate blood-soaked bandages—grew directly out of his experiences as a doctor in the Italian army. He then began to produce works grouped into series according to the material used. The works of the earliest series (c. 1953) were made of coarse cloth stitched together. After 1956 he employed thin pieces of burned wood and layers of polyethylene in which holes were burned, creating a rich spatial network within the layers of plastic. The humble and sometimes crude materials used in these works contrast effectively with their elegant designs, and the easily destroyed materials form a perforated network over an impinging background field. In his series of metal works done after 1959, however, the solid material completely encloses the background field, although the metal is hammered from behind as if the imprisoned field were trying to break out.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • BURRI (A.) — BURRI ALBERTO (1915 1995) Né à Città di Castello, province de Pérouse en Italie, Alberto Burri exerça la médecine militaire pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. À l’issue de son internement au camp de prisonniers d’Hereford, au Texas, il prit la… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

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  • Alberto Burri — avec Emilio Scanavino Alberto Burri est un artiste plasticien italien, peintre et sculpteur né à Città di Castello (Province de Pérouse, Ombrie, Italie) le 12 mars 1915 et mort à …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Alberto Burri — (Città di Castello, March 12, 1915 Nice, February 13, 1995), was an Italian abstract painter and sculptor. Città di Castello has memorialized him with a large permanent museum of his works.Burri earned a medical degree in 1940 from the University …   Wikipedia

  • Burri — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Alberto Burri (1915–1995), italienischer Maler Angy Burri (* 1939), Schweizer Künstler und Musiker Bobby Burri (* 1949), Schweizer Musiker Conrad Burri (1900–1987), Schweizer Mineraloge Emil Burri… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Burri — is a surname, and may refer to:* Alberto Burri (1915 1995), Italian abstract painter and sculptor * Franz Burri (1901 1987), Swiss political figure * René Burri (born 1933), Swiss photographeree also* Burry * Buri …   Wikipedia

  • Alberto Burri — Grande Ferro Celle von Alberti Burri im Skulpturenpark Villa Celle Alberto Burri (* 12. März 1915 in Città di Castello; † 13. Februar 1995 in Nizza) war ein italienischer Maler …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Burri — Bụrri,   Alberto, italienischer Maler, * Città di Castello 12. 3. 1915, ✝ Nizza 13. 2. 1995; begann als Lagerarzt in amerikanischer Kriegsgefangenschaft zu malen. 1952 wandte er sich der Materialassemblage zu, er nähte zerrissene Sackleinwand… …   Universal-Lexikon

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