An exhibition at Sansepolcro’s Museo Civico brings together works by two of the most prominent painters associated with the Tuscan Tiber valley. Rivisitazione: Burri incontra Piero della Francesca pairs post-World War II artist Alberto Burri with Arezzo’s most lauded painter, exploring their unexpected similarities, despite their 500 year distance. Bruno Corà, one of the curators, notes a shared emphasis on ‘balanced forms and space, geometric tension … and strong love for their native lands.’
Burri is best known for his abstract works, drawing on his experiences as a physician in the Italian army during World War II. This focus on abstraction was common to the era, serving as a direct antidote to more explicitly political artistic movements. Burri was particularly noted for his sacchi series, crafted from stitched burlap bags. His famous Sacco e verde (1956) is on display in the room adjacent to Piero della Francesca’s Resurrection, the 1458 work that draws most of the Museo Civico’s traffic.
Running until March 12, 2015, the exhibition is part of a series of events marking the centennial anniversary of Burri’s birth. It coincides with an upcoming retrospective, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, scheduled at New York City’s Guggenheim Museum next fall.
