Burri at the Guggenheim: A Magnificent Combination
The Guggenheim begins honoring the 100th birthday of Italian artist Alberto Burri on October 9th, 2015 with an exhibition titled “The Trauma of Painting.” The NYC museum has organized a huge monograph retrospective of the artist’s work, most of which has never been viewed outside of Italy. The exhibition will remain in New York until January 6th, 2016.
The exhibition features more than 100 works and covers 55 years of the artist’s life, from the 1940s until his death in 1995. Burri is known for his experimentation with unusual materials and his paintings reflect themes such as suffering and a desire for change. But Burri wasn’t always an artist; he was a doctor in the Italian army when he was taken as a prisoner of war in 1943. His artistic endeavors began at a POW camp in Texas where he would paint on burlap sacks when more traditional artistic materials weren’t available. After returning to Italy, he continued his progressive trends and gave up his career as a doctor.
He also used pigments, resins, and household linens to produce some of his work, which consisted of tars, molds, and sculptured canvases that he referred to as hunchbacks. In 1976, he was quoted saying “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.”
The collection was curated by Emily Bruan, professor at Hunter College, and moves through several periods of artistic influence, such as post-minialism, arte povera and the feminist movement of the 1960s. His bright, rugged pieces of work juxtapose with the smooth white walls of the Guggenheim, the architecture of the building and the composition of the pieces combining to strike the eye with a sharp visual contrast. This monograth is not only a collection of progressive artwork by the famed Italian painter, but a celebration of inspiration that has navigated its way through history and remains relevant today.
Throughout the display of Burri’s work, the Guggenheim exhibit will also feature theater, film screenings and a ballet choreographed by Burri’s wife, Minsa Craig, which features set design and costumes made by Burri.
-Marisa Wherry
