White

The arrangement of this large canvas still shows a clear link with painting, even if in those years Burri had already created the series of Muffe (moulds), Catrami (tars) and Sacchi (sacks) from his very intense and rapid experimentation on new materials in the late 1940s. The reason for this creative choice, to some extent a u-turn, which was somewhat traditionalist and in contrast to his more experimental research on material, lies in the totally unique nature of the work, produced on commission for the home of the Roman collector Giorgio Franchetti. Created with oil, enamel and collage, White presents Burri’s personal interpretation of the collage technique, in contrast to the earlier avant-garde attempts from the first half of the 1900s. Due to the more material quality of the solutions adopted, its reveals familiarity with the Roman environment gravitating around the Art Club. The poly-material research of Enrico Prampolini – one of the founders and president of that association – must have been a significant influence in this regard, together with the first attempts of his friend Piero Dorazio, who in those years mixed sand with oil colours, obtaining a more course and solid material. Compared to these precedents, colour here loses its pictorial function, playing on equal terms with the other materials, which it links and absorbs within the composition, including some organic substances, including strands of shredded tobacco.