From 1949 the series of burlap Sacchi tortured by Alberto Burri bear a direct reference to the horrors of the Second World War. His use of coarse materials influences Rauschenberg. In the mid-1950s his new technique named Combustioni is a physico-chemical mastering of the creation of forms by fire.
Burri convulses the material, creates swellings and holes on white or red plastics previously spread on fabrics. A thick layer of material transforms this new form of painting into an abstract sculpture whose violence under control influences Twombly.
The rims of the burned blisters are black. Continuing his experimentation, Burri begins in 1960 a series of Nero Plastica entirely black on an increasingly larger size. Inspiration from war is gradually forgotten or at least greatly diminished.
Although Burri's formal research coincides with those by Klein and Manzoni, he has become a figure in American abstract art searching for new ways that escape Expressionism. With his wife who is a former American dancer for Martha Graham, he buys a house in 1963 near Los Angeles. They will spend the winters in that home for nearly thirty years. L.A. in the titles of his works locates the creation as Twombly did in Bolsena or New York.
On November 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells as lot 48 one of the largest black combustions realized by Burri, 133 x 198 cm, made in 1963, titled Nero Plastica L.A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
SOLD for $ 11M including premium
Burri convulses the material, creates swellings and holes on white or red plastics previously spread on fabrics. A thick layer of material transforms this new form of painting into an abstract sculpture whose violence under control influences Twombly.
The rims of the burned blisters are black. Continuing his experimentation, Burri begins in 1960 a series of Nero Plastica entirely black on an increasingly larger size. Inspiration from war is gradually forgotten or at least greatly diminished.
Although Burri's formal research coincides with those by Klein and Manzoni, he has become a figure in American abstract art searching for new ways that escape Expressionism. With his wife who is a former American dancer for Martha Graham, he buys a house in 1963 near Los Angeles. They will spend the winters in that home for nearly thirty years. L.A. in the titles of his works locates the creation as Twombly did in Bolsena or New York.
On November 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells as lot 48 one of the largest black combustions realized by Burri, 133 x 198 cm, made in 1963, titled Nero Plastica L.A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
SOLD for $ 11M including premium
Sotheby’s Has Big Burri for November Sales https://t.co/bliG1Co7V5 pic.twitter.com/DUiTUGesl0
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) October 5, 2017
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