Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting at the Guggenheim

The 1st major retrospective of Alberto's innovative & exhilirating work (which he refers to as paintings) at the Guggenheim spans 4 decades of his work from the mid 40's - 80's.  The trauma in the title may reference the devastation and horrors of WWII.  Fighting with the Fascist forces, Burri was captured by the British and sent to a P.O.W. camp in TX.  Before the war, he was a trained physician.  During his captivity, he made drawings of his experiences and began forming work from found materials.  Upon returning to Italy after the war, Burri left his medicine and focused on an art career. The show is laid out chronologically.  It helps to identify & group the 10 series of his work and follow their transitions.  There is an uncontrolled formation of destruction found in the burnings he made into plastic, revealing apertures & underlying layers.  The 1st gallery has 3 large scale hanging works from the 40's which are exceedingly beautiful & haunting.  I thought of enlarged microscope slides of blood or microbes.  Burlap was an early material he used early on suggests bandages and exposed wounds of vibrant reds.  The burlap & tar express an austere and devastating post war period.  Throughout, Burri focused on tactile surfaces.  The black fractured vinyl "paintings" made me think of the remaining beauty in charred wood.  the white vinyl works have a serene, abandon aesthetic, as if walking on the moon or an unihabited terrain.  The materials & techniques he employed were constantly shifting.  The early stitched materials lead to sodering of heavy metals and molding of plastics.  The "Hunchback" series are interesting protuding pieces, certainly multi-dimensional, also in hues of red.  Other post war artists that came to mind are Fontana, Castellani and Klein for their techniques of taking away, the focus on texture and structure and a monochromatic use of color.  Rashid Johnson's (b. 1977) series of tar paintings reflect Burri's early work.  There is a Phoenix rising from the ruins aesthetic to his work.  I restrained myself from reaching out and touching his paintings, but I was aching to put my hands on them.