This shoptalk will reconsider the early work of one of the most significant artists of the postwar period, Alberto Burri (1915–1995). Long characterized as the “doctor-turned-artist,” Burri created maimed and sutured canvases that have traditionally been read as metaphorical bodies expressing both personal and widespread trauma caused by World War II. This talk will explore the legacy of that narrative, paying particular attention to the ways in which it has affected the understanding of Burri’s oeuvre and its relation to avant-garde artistic production in Rome during the 1950s.

Katharine McKenney Johnson is the Chuck Close Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize Fellow in Modern Italian Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University.