Hailing from Città di Castello, Alberto Burri initially diverged from the path of artistry, opting instead to pursue studies in medicine. He matriculated at the University of Perugia and successfully obtained his degree in 1940. Shortly thereafter, he answered the call of duty, serving as a Complementary Medical Lieutenant. In 1943, he was once again called upon and dispatched to North Africa. He was captured by British forces during Italy’s surrender and spent eighteen-month internment at the concentration camp in Hereford, Texas.
In 1946, Burri returned to Italy, and established his base in Rome. There, he rented a studio space alongside the sculptor Edgardo Mannucci, embarking on his artistic journey.
The inaugural solo exhibition, which maintained a figurative essence, took place the following year at Gaspero del Corso and Irene Brin’s Galleria La Margherita and was presented by poets Libero De Libero and Leonardo Sinisgalli. Concurrently, Burri’s works were exhibited at the Art Club, an institution to which he maintained ties until the early 1950s, showcasing his creations both domestically and internationally.
His second solo exhibition, Bianchi e Catrami, was held in 1948 at La Margherita, this time featuring a selection of abstract works. That same year Burri’s made his first trip to Paris. He visited Jean Mirò’s studio, acquainted himself with the oeuvre of Alberto Magnelli, and explored the exhibitions hosted at the René Drouin Gallery, a center of the Informal movement. In 1949, he created SZ1, the first printed sack. In 1950, a year of great experimentation, the artist delved into the Muffe and the Gobbi series, as well as the first patched and stitched jute sack.
The following year, he created with Mario Ballocco, Giuseppe Capogrossi and Ettore Colla the Origine Group. In 1952 were held the exhibitions Neri e Muffe at the Galleria dell’Obelisco in Rome and Omaggio a Leonardo at the Origine Foundation. That same year, Burri’s held his first attempt to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. While Lo Strappo was rejected, Lo Studio per lo Strappo, later purchased by Lucio Fontana, was accepted. Fontana, with Burri and other artists were also promoters and signatories of the Manifesto of the Space Movement for Television.
In 1953, Alberto Burri’s ascent to international acclaim took shape with his inaugural exhibition titled Alberto Burri: Paintings and Collages at the Allan Frumkin Gallery in Chicago. The exhibition garnered such success that it was later transferred to Eleanor Ward’s Stable Gallery in New York by the year’s end. Following his meeting with Johnson Sweeney, then-director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Burri received his first dedicated monograph in 1955. Additionally, some of his works were featured in the museum’s exhibition activities. The year ended with a new exhibition at the Origine Foundation, presented by Emilio Villa.
In 1955, five works were exhibited at The new decade: 22 European painters and sculptors, organized by the MoMA, and he participated to the Rome Quadriennale and São Paulo Biennale.
Burri’s exhibition activity continued throughout the 1950s. During the early 1960s, the pioneering experiments of Alberto Burri began to receive retrospective recognition through anthological exhibitions held in Paris, Rome, L’Aquila, Livorno, Turin, Houston, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Pasadena, Darmstadt and Rotterdam. In 1963 the last works made with transparent plastic film were presented at the Marlborough Gallery in Rome. The season of the Plastiche lasted throughout the decade and found critical support from Cesare Brandi, who dedicated a fundamental monograph to the artist in 1963. During the 1960s works by Burri were also shown in the Contemporary Italian Paintings exhibition organized in several Australian cities, and in Peintures italiennes d’aujourd’hui, between the Middle East and North Africa.
The 1970s marked a period of monumental artistic endeavors for Alberto Burri, characterized by the creation of the Cretti and Cellotex. In 1973, Burri responded to the devastation wrought by an earthquake in Gibellina, Sicily, by covering the ruins of this stricken town with a concrete shroud, creating his first and only example of land art.
In 1976, with the support of ceramist Massimo Baldelli, Burri created the Great Black Cretto (1985-1989), exhibited in the sculpture garden Franklin D. Murphy at the University of Los Angeles (UCLA). A similar work was also exhibited at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.
1977 was marked by the retrospective exhibition Alberto Burri. A Retrospective View 1948-77, organized at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Two years later, the artist gave birth to the Cicli, formed by ten monumental compositions that retraced the most significant moments of his production and thus of his artistic journey, now permanently exhibited at the Ex-Seccatoi del Tabacco in Città di Castello (PG). 1981 was marked by the international exhibition of Cicli and the opening of the Burri Foundation in Palazzo Albizzini.
Over the next few years, Burri’s works were exhibited at Brera, on the inauguration of the museum’s Contemporary Art section; at the exhibition The Italian Metamorphosis 1943-1968 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim; at the National Gallery in Athens; and, finally, at the Uffizi in Florence. After the artist’s death, his works were exhibited in some of the world’s most important museums such as: the Georges Pompidou Center, the Tate Gallery in London, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, the Castello di Rivoli and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.