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Lot Essay
L’opera Bianco di Alberto Burri appare sensuale, tattile e coinvolgente; fa parte di una delle serie più radicali dell’artista, i Bianchi appunto, che aveva iniziato nel 1949. Il nome della serie omaggia i pigmenti bianchi, tessuti e materici, ridefinisce il concetto di monocromo e contemporaneamente sovverte e gioca con le allusioni iconografiche del colore bianco. Con la sua superficie riccamente strutturata e variegata, Bianco, eseguito nel 1954, combina macchie di impasto spesso, zone di pietra pomice in polvere cosparse di colore ad olio, delicate crepe che ricordano paesaggi aridi, e macchie di pigmento cucito che sembrano l’intonaco sbriciolato di un affresco secolare. Al centro di questa superficie bianca e luminosa si trova un globo rosso, simile a una ferita per forma e colore, accanto al quale una sottile linea verticale di pittura a olio nera, assimilabile a una raffinata fessura, è circondata da elementi di foglia d’oro e macchie di morbida terra d’ombra. Quasi fosse una superficie formatasi in anni di accumulazione, creata non dalla mano di un artista quanto dal passare del tempo: Bianco è un oggetto autonomo che sfida la categorizzazione in pittura e scultura, e allo stesso tempo è un’opera d’arte ricca di una miriade di associazioni visive di tipo poetico. La provenienza dell’opera è peculiare e intima, fu donata dallo stesso Burri al padre dell’attuale proprietario in occasione del suo matrimonio nel 1954.
Nel realizzare un’opera d’arte partendo esclusivamente da pigmenti e materiali bianchi, Burri ha rivisitato radicalmente il ruolo che per consuetudine viene attribuito a questo colore nell’arte. Tradizionalmente nella pittura a olio il bianco viene utilizzato per lo strato di imprimitura della superficie della tela, prima che questa fosse ricoperta con il colore. Analogamente, anche nell’affresco rinascimentale i cosiddetti gesso grosso e gesso sottile venivano applicati prima come fondo sul quale poi dipingere l’immagine (vedi E. Braun, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, catalogo della mostra, New York, 2015-2016, pp. 136-139). Pertanto, prendendo spunto da un pigmento così ricco di associazioni sia simboliche – il bianco era simbolo di purezza, innocenza o luce – sia di importanza tecnica nella tradizione del fare arte, e utilizzando questo come unico protagonista dell’opera, Burri ha ridefinisce radicalmente le possibilità del medium pittorico nel dopoguerra.
Sensuous, tactile and absorbing, Alberto Burri’s Bianco is one of the artist’s radical series, the Bianchi, which he had begun in 1949. Defined by their exaltation of white pigments, fabrics and materials, this group redefined the concept of the monochrome and simultaneously subverted and played with the iconographic allusions of the colour white. With its richly textured and varied surface, Bianco, executed in 1954, combines patches of thick impasto, areas of powdered pumice stone sprinkled upon the oil paint, delicate craquelure reminiscent of parched landscapes, and patches of stippled pigment which appear like the crumbling plaster of a centuries-old fresco. At the heart of this radiant white surface lies a red orb, wound-like in its form and colour, next to which a fine vertical line of black oil paint, fissure-like in its refinement, is surrounded by flecks of gold leaf and patches of soft umber. Like a surface that has formed over years of accumulation, created not by an artist’s hand but hewn instead by the passage of time, Bianco is both an autonomous object that defies categorisation of painting and sculpture, while at the same time, is an art work filled with myriad poetic visual associations. Bianco has a distinguished and intimate provenance, having been given by Burri to the father of the present owner on the occasion of his wedding in 1954.
In creating a work of art solely from white pigments and materials, Burri was radically revising the traditional role of this colour in art. In the tradition of oil painting, white was used as a preparatory base layer to prime the surface of the canvas, before it was covered with the paint that constituted the image it presented. Similarly, in Renaissance fresco painting, gesso grosso and gesso sottile were likewise applied first as the white ground over which the image was then painted (see E. Braun, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, exh. cat., New York, 2015-2016, pp. 136-139). Therefore, by taking a pigment with such rich associations both symbolically – as a symbol of purity, innocence or light – as well as of technical importance in the tradition of art making, and using this as the sole protagonist and material out of which his painting was made, Burri radically redefined the possibilities of painting in the post-war era.
Nel realizzare un’opera d’arte partendo esclusivamente da pigmenti e materiali bianchi, Burri ha rivisitato radicalmente il ruolo che per consuetudine viene attribuito a questo colore nell’arte. Tradizionalmente nella pittura a olio il bianco viene utilizzato per lo strato di imprimitura della superficie della tela, prima che questa fosse ricoperta con il colore. Analogamente, anche nell’affresco rinascimentale i cosiddetti gesso grosso e gesso sottile venivano applicati prima come fondo sul quale poi dipingere l’immagine (vedi E. Braun, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, catalogo della mostra, New York, 2015-2016, pp. 136-139). Pertanto, prendendo spunto da un pigmento così ricco di associazioni sia simboliche – il bianco era simbolo di purezza, innocenza o luce – sia di importanza tecnica nella tradizione del fare arte, e utilizzando questo come unico protagonista dell’opera, Burri ha ridefinisce radicalmente le possibilità del medium pittorico nel dopoguerra.
Sensuous, tactile and absorbing, Alberto Burri’s Bianco is one of the artist’s radical series, the Bianchi, which he had begun in 1949. Defined by their exaltation of white pigments, fabrics and materials, this group redefined the concept of the monochrome and simultaneously subverted and played with the iconographic allusions of the colour white. With its richly textured and varied surface, Bianco, executed in 1954, combines patches of thick impasto, areas of powdered pumice stone sprinkled upon the oil paint, delicate craquelure reminiscent of parched landscapes, and patches of stippled pigment which appear like the crumbling plaster of a centuries-old fresco. At the heart of this radiant white surface lies a red orb, wound-like in its form and colour, next to which a fine vertical line of black oil paint, fissure-like in its refinement, is surrounded by flecks of gold leaf and patches of soft umber. Like a surface that has formed over years of accumulation, created not by an artist’s hand but hewn instead by the passage of time, Bianco is both an autonomous object that defies categorisation of painting and sculpture, while at the same time, is an art work filled with myriad poetic visual associations. Bianco has a distinguished and intimate provenance, having been given by Burri to the father of the present owner on the occasion of his wedding in 1954.
In creating a work of art solely from white pigments and materials, Burri was radically revising the traditional role of this colour in art. In the tradition of oil painting, white was used as a preparatory base layer to prime the surface of the canvas, before it was covered with the paint that constituted the image it presented. Similarly, in Renaissance fresco painting, gesso grosso and gesso sottile were likewise applied first as the white ground over which the image was then painted (see E. Braun, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, exh. cat., New York, 2015-2016, pp. 136-139). Therefore, by taking a pigment with such rich associations both symbolically – as a symbol of purity, innocence or light – as well as of technical importance in the tradition of art making, and using this as the sole protagonist and material out of which his painting was made, Burri radically redefined the possibilities of painting in the post-war era.