A multimedia area to retrace the life and works of Alberto Burri, in his museum in Città di Castello


The Great Burri Museums of Città di Castello opens a new multimedia and documentary area to retrace the life and works of Alberto Burri.

Great news, from March 12, 2018, at the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini - Collezione Burri in Città di Castello(Perugia), the great museum entirely dedicated to the work of Alberto Burri (Città di Castello, 1915 - Nice, 1995), one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century: in fact, exactly 103 years after Burri’s birth, the new Burridocumenta section will be inaugurated in the museum, completing the Great Burri Museums project in the Umbrian city. It is a multimedia and documentary area that, through innovative visual tools, will allow to deepen the knowledge and understanding of Alberto Burri’s work and the context in which it was placed. The new area integrates the sections already present in the museum: that of the works from 1948 to 1985, located in Palazzo Albizzini, and those of the great cycles of the 1970s-1990s and the graphic work, which instead find space in the Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco. It is precisely in the Ex Seccatoi that the new area also finds a home.

Burridocumenta traces the entire life of Alberto Burri with documents, reproductions, invitations, catalogs, videos, and films that offer a complete panorama of his career, his production, his pictorial, sculptural and architectural experiences, his encounters with contemporary artists and critics, and the exhibitions and international reviews in which he took part. In the first section, the public will find ten multimedia projections that delve into the artist’s beginnings, his encounter with the postwar Italian context and his stay in the United States, as well as the development of Alberto Burri’s first important artistic experiences, those that would later become characteristics of his art-making: the use of new materials such as sackcloth, iron and cellotex, the use of compositional techniques that renewed collage and assemblage, the use of fire, and the elaboration of monochromaticism. It then continues with documents around the works of the last phase of his career as well as on the Burri Foundation, the entity the artist himself wanted: the founding moments of its institution are retraced as well as the initiatives organized by the Foundation throughout its existence, from the retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York to the completion of the Great Cretto of Ghibellina and the reconstruction of the Teatro Continuo in Milan.

In the second section, on the other hand, it will be possible, through the use of touchscreens, to consult texts, brochures, magazines, catalogs and documents on Alberto Burri’s activity. Space will also be given to a multimedia library with various original documents. It will also be possible to watch films dedicated to the great artist and his work.

“The museums of the Burri Collection, the Library, the Historical Archives and now the Documentary Section,” reads the presentation of the project, “make Città di Castello one of the most authoritative and important Italian centers, both in terms of quality and quantity of works and documents, where to learn and study the art of Alberto Burri and the contemporary art of the 20th century.” For any information you can visit www.fondazioneburri.org.

Image: the Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco in Città del Castello, home to part of the Great Burri Museums and the new Burridocumenta section. Ph. Credit G. Basilico

A multimedia area to retrace the life and works of Alberto Burri, in his museum in Città di Castello
A multimedia area to retrace the life and works of Alberto Burri, in his museum in Città di Castello


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