Alberto Burri

Alberto Burri (born 12 March 1915 in Città di Castello, Italy, died 13 February 1995 in Nice, France) was an Italian painter and sculptor.

Early life and career

Alberto Burri was born in Città di Castello, in Umbria in 1915 to a wine merchant and an elementary school teacher. He earned a medical degree from the University of Perugia specializing in tropical medicine. On 12 October 1940, two days after Italy entered World War II, Burri was called up as a medic and sent to Libya. On 8 May 1943 after the Axis forces were defeated at El Alamein, his unit was captured in Tunisia. He was interned in Camp Howze prisoner of war camp in Gainesville, Texas, where he began to paint.

Impact of World War II

World War II had wreaked havoc on Italy. The country's resources had bled dry, defeat had made it old and bitter and years of fascism had imposed an agonizing cultural narrow-mindedness. A sort of modern Renaissance however swept through the country with the end of the Second World War. Artists began to use their work as a way to reexamine the past and the future of a country trying to find confidence in itself. Painters, poets and intellectuals formed new groups, cultural associations and drafted specialized periodicals and invited new theories, paving the way for a brand new platform for art.