Executed 1957-1959, the work has remained in the same private family for over fifty years since its acquisition by Rome's renowned Galleria La Tartaruga shortly after its first exhibition in 1957. With an estimate of $10-15 million, it is poised to break Burri's auction record during its first public sale. “Big wood and red is a great example of one of Burri's most celebrated periods,” said Hugues Joffre, Senior Advisor to the CEO of Phillips. “An image of exceptional quality, the Grande Legno e Rosso sale presents an exciting opportunity for collectors of postwar Italian art to acquire a true masterpiece from Burri's work.”
Monumental and engaging in scale, Alberto Burri's Great Wood and Red spans eight feet in width, with the combination of wood and fire that Burri had only recently introduced into his oeuvre, therefore placing it at the forefront of his oeuvre. The work demonstrates why Burri's artistic output is so well in tune with the atmosphere of post-war Europe. The continent had been devastated by World War II and the old hierarchies had been overthrown. It was the era of existentialism and abstract expressionism, and having established his career in Rome and New York in the early 50s, Burri's work seemed to challenge both.
His incorporation of 'poor' materials such as sackcloth and wood revealed that an artist seems to elevate the humblest of elements into the realm of art, placing them on a previously unthinkable pedestal. Likewise, the techniques employed by Burri indicated an artist who was finding new ways to make a mark on the canvas. With red-hot wood and incorporating it within the confines of a pictorial surface, Burri was pushing the boundaries of art to new extremes.
Big Wood and Red marks an early example of Burri using the more uncontrollable fire element in his work, set some years before Yves Klein began his famous series of fire paintings. The material is very important when considering Burri's work, but rather than focusing directly on the materials, he used them as a vessel to generate an emotional response within the viewer, just as artists of the later movement would do. 'Poor art. Burri's methods can be seen as paving the way for the artists who would follow him, creating an extraordinary influence on the international scene.
By the time Grande Legno e Rosso was created, Burri had already become an internationally recognized artist, having gained increasing visibility and success in the early 50s. By 1957, Burri was appearing throughout Italy, Europe and the United States. This rise to fame was all the more impressive as it was only during his imprisonment in World War II that he had turned to painting as a vocation, abandoning medicine, his former vocation. While serving as a POW in Hereford, Texas, Burri increasingly focused on art; though he would later destroy many of the works from that period, he made a point of saving his first landscape, Texas. This work, full of burnt red and orange and with a high horizon, can be seen as an ancestor for the composition of Big Wood and Red.
The importance of Big Wood and Red is further indicated by its inclusion in the acclaimed 2015 retrospective of Burri's work held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Since that exhibition, the unveiling of this photo at the auction marks only the second time it has been publicly displayed since 1960, shortly after it was completed. Auction: Thursday, November 15 Location: 450 Park Avenue, New York.
Image: Large Wood and Red, 1957–59. Wood veneer, fabric, combustion, acrylic, PVA, and staples on black fabric, 150 x 250 cm.
