Alberto Burri (1915-1995) Italian School CRETTO NERO, c.1975 7 x 10 inches / 15½ x 17¾ framed CRETTO BIANCO, 1976 7 x 10 inches / 24 x 22 framed Mixed media on celotex Both signed upper right with graphite pencil: “Burri” Accompanying the artworks are Certificates of Authenticity issued in April 2004 by the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini, “Collezione Burri”, Perugia, Italy. Provenance: The artist Private Collection, Pasadena, California Private Collection, Inglewood, California Alberto Burri, important Italian abstract painter, originally studied medicine with the intention of working in Africa as a medical doctor. Taken prisoner in 1943, he was sent to a camp in Texas, where he began to paint. On his return to Italy in 1945, he decided to become a painter and moved to Rome where he had his first one-man exhibition. In 1948 he adopted an abstract style and incorporated sacking into his pictures, followed by wood, iron and plastic in the later 1950s. The patched and scarred appearance of his pictures, and their textural contrasts, were sometimes heightened by burning certain areas, called “combustione”. He exhibited his work at the Venice Biennial in 1960 and was awarded the Grand Prix jointly with Vasarely at the 1965 Sao Paulo Bienal. In the 1970s, Burri embarked upon the “cracked” paintings series, creviced earthlike surfaces incorporating cellotex, that played with notions of trompe l’oeil. In 1977, the artist gifted a masterwork entitled “Grande Cretto Nero” to the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden in Los Angeles. Burri was awarded the Italian Order of Merit in 1994, passing away the following year. Sold - Private Collection, New York, New York

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