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Lot Essay
In Nero con punti rossi, executed in 1957, Burri has stitched and joined a selection of materials together, showcasing the variety of textures of each of these surfaces. This is made all the more explicit by the stark contrasts in colour, with the sackcloth and stitching thrust into relief by the dominant black. In this way, Burri has created a celebration of material, of sense. The use of these conspicuously poor materials, some of them clearly readymade and bearing the scars of their uses in their previous life, demonstrate why Burri is often considered the godfather of Arte Povera. He has taken deliberately humble elements from reality and, rather than indulging in what he perceived as the irrelevance of figuration, has presented us with these aspects from the world around us. There is no reference, no need to interpret. Instead, Nero con punti rossi's insistent objecthood provides us with a tattered, stitched shard of our universe to observe and to admire. 'Everything,' Burri explained, 'is already present in the painting' (Burri, quoted in G. Serafini, Burri: The Measure and the Phenomenon, Milan, 1999, p. 114).
Binding together the various coarse elements that comprise Nero con punti rossi are the zig-zagging stitches that recall Burri's original vocation as a doctor. These stitches speak not only of healing, but also of the artist's own movements. He has abandoned the brush, the traditional tool for the painter, in favour of the needle and thread. In this way, he commits himself to a bold and democratic assault on art, on high culture, on a realm of pedestals and idols needing to be toppled. The manly brush is subverted, the Abstract Expressionist gesture punctured by this needle, by this sewing. And crucially, the artistic gesture is crystallised, is traced as it meanders its way across the surface. In this way, Nero con punti rossi contains not only fragments of the real world, but also of time. This picture is the product of a moment, and that moment has been captured and displayed before us. And in this sense, Nero con punti rossi is unique. As Burri explained, 'I have never repeated myself. When I have an idea, I work on it and as soon as I see that everything has achieved the right balance, it's finished, and I move on to something else' (Burri, quoted in ibid., p. 144).
Binding together the various coarse elements that comprise Nero con punti rossi are the zig-zagging stitches that recall Burri's original vocation as a doctor. These stitches speak not only of healing, but also of the artist's own movements. He has abandoned the brush, the traditional tool for the painter, in favour of the needle and thread. In this way, he commits himself to a bold and democratic assault on art, on high culture, on a realm of pedestals and idols needing to be toppled. The manly brush is subverted, the Abstract Expressionist gesture punctured by this needle, by this sewing. And crucially, the artistic gesture is crystallised, is traced as it meanders its way across the surface. In this way, Nero con punti rossi contains not only fragments of the real world, but also of time. This picture is the product of a moment, and that moment has been captured and displayed before us. And in this sense, Nero con punti rossi is unique. As Burri explained, 'I have never repeated myself. When I have an idea, I work on it and as soon as I see that everything has achieved the right balance, it's finished, and I move on to something else' (Burri, quoted in ibid., p. 144).