On Sunday 16th December at 10.30am, Vistamare will be inaugurating an exhibition of works by Alberto Burri, featuring a selection of pieces from some of the artist’s most important print cycles.
25 years on from the 1993 exhibition, organized by the Associazione delle Genti d’Abruzzo at the Bagno Borbonico in Pescara, in which a number of the Umbrian maestro’s prints were exhibited, Burri’s art returns to Pescara with a rich selection of pieces from seven of his extraordinary print cycles: Combustioni (1965), Cretti (1971), Multiplex (1981) Mixoblack (1988), Sestante (1989), Oro e Nero (1993), Monotex (1994), Multiplex Rosso Alfa, 1982, and one of his pieces in Cellotex, the artist’s medium of choice from the 1950s through to the 1990s.
The exhibition offers an opportunity to see and learn more of a significant portion of Burri’s work as a printmaker, the experimental nature and marvellous results of which were recognized and acknowledged by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei who awarded him the Premio Feltrinelli for his contribution to the graphic arts.
For over 40 years, master engravers and printmakers of great skill and sensitivity, including Rossi, Ascani (Nuvolo), Remba, Castelli and Baldessarini, collaborated with Burri, assisting with his experiments and contributing to the masterful results at the very highest of technical and artistic levels. The exhibition therefore highlights a lesser-known aspect of Burri’s work but one to which he nonetheless dedicated particular care and enthusiasm, producing extraordinarily innovative work in terms of both technique and image.
Along with the Nuova Raccolta dell’Opera Grafica which opened in 2017 at the Museo degli Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco in Città di Castello (Perugia), the exhibition in Pescara currently represents the largest selection of Burri’s graphic art on public display in a privately run gallery.
Burri’s story (Città di Castello 1915 – Nice 1995) has been explored in great depth and his work can be seen in museums and art collections worldwide.
In 1978, at the height of his creative powers, the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri was established at the artist’s behest, in Città di Castello, fulfilling Burri’s desire to donate a substantial number of his works to his home town. He participated in numerous editions of the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel.
His works have been displayed in some of the world’s most important museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna e contemporanea in Rome, the Castello di Rivoli (Turin) and the Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto.
Among the numerous prizes awarded to the artist, the most significant included the AICA/Critics’ prize at the Venice Biennale in 1960, the Premio Marzotto in 1964, the Gran Premio at the São Paolo Bienal in 1965, and the Premio Feltrinelli for graphic art in 1973.
Alberto Burri is internationally recognized as one of the most important figures in Italian art from the second world war onwards.