Alberto Burri | Grafica

1971 was a particularly prolific year for Burri’s graphic work, and drew to a close with the production of the Cretti. A first experiment in this direction had already been undertaken in 1962 for the small Cretti bianco on the first page of the “Variazioni” book. 1

In this series, the issue became much more complex as a result of the considerable size and physical density which the engraving had to imprint on the paper from behind, to avoid it being flattened during the ink printing.

Once again, the artist, determined to reach his objective, which was very clear in his mind, presented a challenge to the printer, who was tasked with obtaining a result from these techniques which nobody had ever requested before.

After several months of experimentation, the result proved extraordinary. As with the “pictorial” series of the Cretti, we immediately note distinct tones in the cracks, sometimes sharp, angular and cutting, and sometimes detached from the cellotex base, softer, rounded and more nuanced in the paper.

The title “Cretto” connects the pictorial work to the graphic work, but the engravings are distinguished by their own original formal values. Nevertheless, the overall balance remains unchanged, designed and obtained in the same way as in the works on cellotex.

1981 marked the beginning of a new phase in Alberto Burri’s graphic production.

Without the intermediary of a printer, the artist imagined a new technique for the production of multiples.

A press was specially created, handmade from recycled elements and adapted to the dimensions of the chosen materials. For this series, the artist first proceeded manually: he cut the pieces of cardboard, painted them in black and red, and used vinyl when he wanted to make the base material shine: a cardboard of the same colour as the cellotex. Then came a long, meticulous work of assembling the pieces of cardboard. For two of the ten works in the series, an additional step was required after the press, proceeding with the abrasion of the black cardboard in order to make it supple and to accentuate its textural effects.

Subsequently, to reduce the production times for this series, Burri had the pieces of cardboard precut into specific shapes. Having perfected the technique, he delegated the assembly work to the printer Fausto Baldessarini.

The Multiplex are characteristed by a true material coherence, which becomes pictorial, as in a unique piece, and by means of a balanced, completed structure.

For the ten Monotex, Burri returned to the technique of multiples.

This was the metamorphosis of the same “image” presented three years earlier in the “Metamorfotex” pictorial cycle,1 in which the sequence of nine uninterrupted paintings (a unique case in Burri’s long artistic career) was necessary to visualise the transformation of the same composition, divided into eight forms: from the first module, entirely made of cellotex, the black gradually advances, until it occupies the entire surface of the last painting.

In the case of the Monotex, whose forms, like those of the “Metamorfotex,” are homologous from one painting to the next, the beginning and the end of the cycle are marked by two monochromes, one white and one black, but Burri’s approach is different. The reproduction is orderly and synchronous with the identification of the elements which are gradually taken over by black, and the module splits and recomposes itself simultaneously. In each panel, white prevails, but the black enables the geometric perception of the different elements which make up the whole – a perfect link.