Mazzoleni is pleased to announce its forthcoming landmark exhibition of works by Alberto Burri, from 2nd October – 15th December, 2015. Burri was an undisputed master of twentieth-century art; his oeuvre brought a new language to Post-War art and his use of unconventional materials created a new aesthetic that paved the way for many younger artists.
The exhibition demonstrates the gallery’s continuing commitment to a programme of exhibitions on Post-War Italian artists and coincides with a major retrospective of Burri’s work at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York during the celebration of the centenary of the artist’s birth.
This extensive solo exhibition at Mazzoleni London brings together works from several important stages in the artist’s life, many of them from private collections and rarely shown publicly. The majority of the works exhibited come from the Mazzoleni family’s personal collection – a prominent collection of works built up over several decades. The gallery has previously held two solo exhibitions of Burri’s work at its Turin space in 2003 and 2011.
The exhibition in London is a rare opportunity to view approximately 30 works from across this pioneering artist’s practice. Early tactile collages in unconventional materials such as pumice, black tar and burlap, including Nero Catrame (1951), Sacco e Rosso (1956) and Sacco Bianco e Nero (1956) transform the traditional definition of painting by employing a new language and giving life to hitherto unheard-of expressive results.
Also on display are Burri’s Combustioni burnt wood, paper and plastic works, including Nero Rosso Combustione (1964) and Bianco CN4 (1966), a rare humpbacked piece Gobbo (1968) and pieces created from welded iron sheets. Later works, such as Burri’s cracked paintings Nero Cretto (1970) – influenced by the view of the desert from his prison camp window in Texas – and his Cellotex works, including AN2 Nero (1979) bear witness to the artist’s evolving dedication to invention.
An illustrated colour catalogue in English and Italian will be published especially for this exhibition. It includes an important essay written in 1963 by Cesare Brandi (1906-1988), photographs by Aurelio Amendola and an introduction by Vittorio Brandi Rubiu, who has curated many exhibitions of Post-War art. His main publications include: contributions to Burri’s Catalogue Raisonné (appendix to the monograph of Brandi, Editalia, 1963), Alberto Burri (Einaudi, 1975) and Pascali (De Luca, 1976).