Alberto Burri, Città di Castello, 1976 Aurelio Amendola. Thursday 14 - Sunday 17 June 2018, 11 am - 7 pm. Wednesday 13 June 2018, 4 pm - 8 pm

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1 Alberto Burri, Città di Castello, 1976 Aurelio Amendola PRESS KIT June 7 th 2018 ART BASEL Booth F13 Access: VIP Preview: Opening reception: Art Basel Conversation: Thursday 14 - Sunday 17 June 2018, 11 am - 7 pm Tuesday 12 June 2018, 11 am - 8 pm Wednesday 13 June 2018, 11 am - 8 pm Wednesday 13 June 2018, 4 pm - 8 pm Saturday 16 June 2018, 2 pm For Art Basel 2018, Tornabuoni Art is proud to present the first ever fair booth solely devoted to the Plastiche (plastic works) of Alberto Burri ( ). To celebrate these iconic works among Burri s best known and most loved series Tornabuoni Art is publishing an unprecedented scholarly catalogue to focus on the Plastiche, edited by Bruno Corà, President of the Alberto Burri Foundation in the artist s home town of Città di Castello, Umbria. Together, the Tornabuoni Art stand at Art Basel and the new catalogue form the first chapter of a year-long project to honour Burri, one of the most important and influential Italian Post-War artists, which will culminate in a full survey exhibition during the Venice Biennale 2019, at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. Tornabuoni Art s stand at Art Basel will present eight of Burri s Plastiche, dating from , in black, transparent and red tones. Burri began making these plastic works in 1961, after a period of illness, and they represent a summation of many of the key themes of his work. In 2017, a large, black plastic work fetched $11m at auction in New York, demonstrating that Burri s Plastiche are among the artist s most sought after series. 1/5

2 Known for inventing a new kind of informal art in the 1950s, Burri first gained fame for making work out of re-used and recycled materials such as metal, wood and famously burlap sacks, influencing such artists as Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. Burri s Plastiche furthered his quasi-alchemical exploration and manipulation of simple raw materials, embracing a kind of creation through destruction. The plastic sheeting he painted with his blowtorch was a new consumer product of the 1960s. By burning the plastic, he brought this symbol of bright, modern living full circle: the round, organic shapes of the plastic works create a new kind of abstraction, while simultaneously suggesting the cyclical idea of returning an industrial product to its natural roots in the earth, turning the plastic back into the petroleum and the prehistoric matter from which it came. The artist always emphasised the fact that these works were acts of controlled destruction: he had a vision of the composition he wanted before he started burning. Burri used fire one of mankind s primordial tools to make art with the then new material of plastic. He also blew on the molten plastic as it cooled down, so the circles on the works are traces of the artist s breath. Each work mixes the man-made with the artificial and combines the natural elements of earth, air and fire. Radical at the time of their creation, Burri s Plastiche are still among his most prized works today. To explore them in greater depth, Tornabuoni is publishing the first scholarly catalogue on these works, edited by Bruno Corà, the President of the Fondazione Alberto Burri, the first time he has been directly involved in such a publication. The catalogue includes rare interviews and unseen archival material, and retraces the exhibition history of the Plastiche and their reception to the present day. Tornabuoni Art launches first catalogue devoted to Alberto Burri s Plastic Works at Art Basel Conversations To introduce the new scholarly catalogue and discuss the importance of the Plastiche, Tornabuoni Art is pleased to be participating in an Art Basel Conversation about Alberto Burri on Saturday 16 June at 2pm. The panel discussion includes Bruno Corà (President of the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri), Luca Massimo Barbero (Director of the Istituto di Storia dell Arte, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice) and Phillip Rylands (Director Emeritus of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice). The panel will be moderated by Thomas Marks, Editor of Apollo Magazine. In the coming year, Tornabuoni Art will mount exhibitions of Alberto Burri s work in its Paris and London galleries and will co-organise a major exhibition of Burri with the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri, scheduled to open at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice in May 2019, to coincide with the Venice Biennale. Artwork: Alberto Burri, Plastica, plastic, combustion on alluminium frame, 1963, 98 x 74 cm. Tornabuoni Art Image: cover of the book, Burri/Plastiche, edited by Bruno Corrà, Forma Edizioni, Florence, 2018 Tornabuoni Art 2/5

3 NOTES TO EDITORS About Alberto Burri Alberto Burri (1915, Città di Castello 1995, Nice) The Italian painter and sculptor Alberto Burri was born in Città di Castello, near Perugia, on March 12, He is associated with the materialist current of the European movement of «Art Informel»; he also had ties with Lucio Fontana s Spatialism and, alongside Antoni Tàpies, had an influence on the renewal of Post-War assemblage art (Robert Rauschenberg) in America and in Europe. After graduating from medical school in 1940, Alberto Burri enrolled in the Italian army, was captured by the allied forces in 1943 in Tunisia and was subsequently sent to the Hereford prisonnier of war camp in Texas, where he started painting landscapes. His first solo exhibition took place in From 1949 on he used burlap as a substitute for canvas. In 1951, Burri participated in the creation of the Origine group, with Mario Ballocco, Ettore Colla and Guiseppe Capogrossi, who rejected the decorative effects of abstract art and explored ideas such as reducing colour to its most simple yet impactful function. In 1952, Burri participated for the first time in the Venice Bienniale. The following year he was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In , the Guggenheim Museum in New York staged the first major US retrospective of Burri s work in a generation. Burri was exhibited at the Musée National d Art Moderne in Paris in In 1981 the Alberto Burri Foundation was inaugurated a permanent collection of the works that the artist donated to his hometown. Burri s artistic production, which is organised in series bearing such names as Sacchi, Combustioni, Cellotex, Legni, Plastiche, or Ferri (Sacks, Combustions, Cellotex, Woods, Plastics, Irons) develops a material meditation on form and its transformative processes. Dissolved by fire, attacked by mold, corroded or consumed by time, the material of his works is destroyed by the same artistic gesture which transforms it, leaving a residual image, the production of which is seen in the work itself. Burri died in Nice in Photography: Alberto Burri, Grande Plastica, Grottarossa, 1962 (detail) Mulas Heirs 3/5

4 ABOUT THE GALLERY Founded in Florence in 1981 by Roberto Casamonti, in the street that gave the gallery its name, Tornabuoni Art opened other exhibition spaces in Crans-Montana in 1993, Milan in 1995, Forte Dei Marmi in 2004, Paris in 2009 and London in Specialising in Post-War Italian art, the gallery presents the work of artists such as Fontana, Burri, Castellani, Bonalumi, Boetti, Scheggi and Manzoni. Tornabuoni Art also has a permanent collection of significant works by major Italian artists of the 20th century, such as de Chirico, Morandi, Balla and Severini, as well as international 20th-century avant-garde masters, such as Picasso, Mirò, Kandinsky, Hartung, Poliakoff, Dubuffet, Lam, Matta, Christo, Wesselmann, Warhol and Basquiat. Complementing its focus on Italian art, the Tornabuoni Art collection also features the work of young contemporary artists such as the Italian artist Francesca Pasquali and the Italybased Armenian artist Mikayel Ohanjanyan, who, along with the Armenian pavilion, won the Golden Lion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Tornabuoni Art participates in major international art fairs such as the FIAC in Paris, TEFAF in Maastricht and New York, Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, Art Basel Hong Kong, Miart in Milan, Frieze Masters in London, Artgeneve in Geneva and Artmonte-carlo in Monaco. The gallery also works closely with museums, artists estates and institutions, most recently with the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice on the exhibition Alighiero Boetti: Minimum/Maximum, timed to coincide with the opening of the Venice Biennale With Tornabuoni Art s experience and knowledge of the work of the artists it represents, the gallery has also established itself as an advisor for both private and public collections. Press contact Sarah Greenberg Director, Evergreen Arts +44 (0) sgreenberg@evergreen-arts.com Gallery contact Francesca Piccolboni Gallery director + 33 (0) fpiccolboni@tornabuoniart.fr For more information on the gallery and its activities, visit Follow us on Facebook (@TornabuoniArt), Instagram (@TornabuoniArt) and Twitter (@TornabuoniArt) with the hashtags #TornabuoniArt #ArtBasel2018 #AlbertoBurri #BurriPlastiche. 4/5

5 IMAGES AVAILABLE FOR PRESS Alberto Burri, Città di Castello,1976 Aurelio Amendola Alberto Burri, Città di Castello, 1976 Aurelio Amendola Alberto Burri, Grande Plastica, Grottarossa, 1962 Mulas Heirs Book cover, Burri/Plastiche, edited by Bruno Corrà, Forma Edizioni, Florence, 2018 Tornabuoni Art Alberto Burri, Plastica, plastic, combustion on alluminium frame, 1963, 98 x 74 cm. Tornabuoni Art Portrait of Alberto Burri, 1964 ca. Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri Alberto Burri, Rosso Plastica, plastic, acrylic, vinavil and combustion on canvas, 1963, 80 x 100 cm. Tornabuoni Art Portrait of Alberto Burri in the Grottarossa studio, Rome, Photography Ugo Mulas Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri 5/5