(Città di Castello/Perugia 1915–1995 Nice)
Nero Cellotex, 1991, acrylic and vinavil on cellotex, 54 x 74 cm, framed

This work is registered in the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini and is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity

Provenance:
Galerie Sapone, Nice
Private Collection, Italy
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Bologna, Burri. Il Cellotex ha un cuore antico, Galerie Sapone-Arte Fiera, 27–31 January 2005, exh. cat. pp. 44, no. 17, 45 ill., 53

Literature:
B. Corà, Burri. Catalogo generale. Pittura 1979–1994, vol. III, Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri, Città di Castello 2015, p. 303, no. 2199 (i.9149) with ill.

Mindful of formal relationships at the centre of his research, Burri‘s Work is organised into cycles: first the black paintings Catrami (tars), and later Muffe (mould), and then from 1952 what is perhaps his most well-known typology, Sacchi (sacks), in which the canvas is no longer a mere base for the painting, but an integral part of it. Colourless burlap scraps are joined by large sutures; this most humble material, created to carry the bare necessities of life, becomes a sort of skin upon which black or red paint score what appear almost to be burns or wounds.
In the series of Combustioni (combustions), Ferri (irons), Legni (woods) and Cellotex works, the expressive effects obtained from natural and artificial materials continue, animated by signs of decay created by Burri himself.
The fibreboard that helped define these last works of Burri’s was first created in the United States in the 1920s. Manufactured as insulation board and acoustic panelling, and originally made from the residue of pressed sugarcane, Celotex was later produced using a variety of organic substances, among them bark, grass, hemp, and peanut shells.
The surface of the work represents the field in which the actions of the artist take place, his place of work and research, where a rejection of the traditional artistic methods occurs, and new technical procedures are introduced in order to gain greater expressive intensity.
After having worked with burlap, iron, clay, wood and charred plastic, Burri started to employ an impasto made from sawdust and glue: an industrial material normally used in the construction industry as insulation, which he had until then used as the foundation for his works… He carves it, scratches it, and marks it.
The art critic Francesco Bonami explained: “He never speaks of things, only of materials. The great art historian Giulio Carlo Argan wrote that when one looks at a Burri, one is not looking at a Morandi [...] in the sense that where Morandi observes the bottle, Burri observes the glass. As a doctor, he checks the surface, the skin, the pores, the hair, like a dermatologist of art.” He tackles his Celotex as a dermatologist might, analysing its consistency, cutting it, revealing its most intimate secrets one layer at a time.