24.02.2012 / Arts & Culture
Italian Art in London
The work of Italian artist Alberto Burri, who, along with Lucio Fontana, gave a new impetus to Italian art in the post-World War II era, has come to London. The exhibition, which is being at the Estorick Collection, includes 40 works summing up Burri’s whole career, from the Forties to the Nineties.
A professional physician, after graduating Burri enlisted in the army during the Second World War. Taken prisoner in Tunis and transfered to Texas by the Americans, he started painting in the U.S. with makeshift materials.
After getting back to Italy in 1946, he finally managed to exhibit his work in Rome, managing to gain a popularity that would later allow him to exhibit in Venice (Biennale), Paris (Centre Georges Pompidou) and at the Guggenheim Museum in New York – which held a one-man exhibition of his works in the Seventies.Quickly abandoning his figurative approach, Burri began to experiment with new materials such as rubber, pumice stone, plastic and sacking. The “gobbi” paintings, where the canvas is pushed forward by a simple metal or wooden structure stuck in the frame are among his most popular series.
In the same period, Lucio Fontana gave life to his famous “cuts”, focusing on the painting’s material support rather than on the painting itself.
The London exhibition aims at stressing Burri’s huge success among art collectors. Many of his works have come under the hammer at Christie’s for exorbitant figures;Â Rosso plastica, for instance, was sold for almost 2 million dollars.
Alberto Burri: form and matter, London, Estorick Collection, until April 8
Links
http://www.fondazioneluciofontana.it/
