We are again at the National Gallery of Modern Art of Rome facing one of the masterpieces by Alberto Burri, an Italian artist active especially in the years ’50 and ’60 of the last century. Going on with the reading it will be time, for you, to change your mind about art.

Leaving aside the idea that you can have about art, and leaving aside the aesthetic judgments (absolutely legitimate), the question that one may ask is: what is it? What you see in front of you, titled "Big Red", is simply burned plastic, a technique used by Burri. The artist followed the trend of matter that burst in the history of art in those years: it was not enough just a simple plain weave or simple figures. The artist wanted to elevate to works of art even ordinary and common materials, such as plastic or jute, which is another element that is very dear to Burri. Think about the collage by Picasso or the ready-mades by Duchamp. The common object becomes art, often making the canvases of the painters (while painting), something more than simple colored surfaces.

On this occasion Burri literally melted down simple plastic, using the blowtorch. We see the signs, totally natural, left by the burns and by the action of the fire. The intense red color comes also from the process of combustion of the plastic. An industrial  item  which, in a natural way, is able to create new forms and colours, becoming a work of art. Burri made, as an absolute protagonist, a material of which we never think, which is something that we do not give importance. But also something related to our daily life. Moreover Burri, in a certain way, wanted to show us how the plastic was malleable, moldable, and transformable as was the marble for the artists of the Renaissance, or, especially, of the Baroque. In short, as the newspaper, the object and the material of painting becomes the sole protagonist.

So we understand how the National Gallery of Modern Art of Rome is a sort of container full of unusual things for an historical city like this one, but at the same time it is sure that here there are real masterpieces of people like Burri or, for example, Gustav Klimt (click here to know more about him and one of his works of art host in this museum). A fantastic place for a different way to live Rome!