Tis late and I should be in bed.............but before I go, I leave you with a question; Tonight I watched one of those 'how do you make' programmes and tonight's item was.........an American baseball glove. It was fascinating, lots of layers, lots of hand stitching and hand cutting and very labour intensive from start to finish. I was impressed at the skill of these workers. BUT.........I began to wonder, are these guys paid a low wage in line with other low/ semi skilled factory workers? OR are they paid more than basic factory workers because they are in fact very skilled craft people?............... I wonder because when the programme first started it looked like a pretty ordinary production line factory, But then we began to see what a skilled job it really is, I was impressed :-)

Spring 2012

yep.............spring is here

Truth about the Health and Social Care Bill

Written February 2012 by

Professor Ian Banks
Dr Jacky Davis
Dr Clive Peedell
Dr David Wrigley
 
Health and Social Care Bill Briefing

This Health Bill is bad for the NHS and bad for our patients, bad policy and poor politics.
This is not a party political issue. Many doctors campaigned against New Labour’s market based NHS reforms because they believed that a publicly funded, publicly provided, and publically accountable NHS is the most cost effective and equitable way of delivering healthcare to our population.
We believe the Health and Social Care Bill is not the answer to the problems of the NHS and will in fact make things worse not better. We believe that the case for such a radical change to the NHS has not been made. There is no electoral mandate given that neither of the coalition parties stood for election on the basis of introducing such an enormous re-organisation of the NHS.
If the bill goes through costs will go up rather than down. Bureaucracy will increase from 3 layers to 7. The service will be fragmented and the transactional nature of the new healthcare market will undermine medical professionalism and the doctor patient relationship. Power will not be in the hands of doctors and patients but rather in the hands of private companies who will have an ever increasing role in both commissioning and delivering NHS care.
The number of services provided by the NHS will decline over the next few years and increasing numbers of patients will take out health insurance to widen their coverage. This process will be catalysed by the NHS efficiency drive we now see as services start to fail and commissioning groups come under enormous pressure to reduce costs. This will then place enormous financial pressure on Foundation Trusts, which will need to treat increasing proportions of private patients to stay afloat. This is why Foundation Trust hospitals will be able to earn up to 49% of their income from private patients. Where does this leave NHS patients without the financial means to go private?
There is little doubt that the intention of this bill is to denationalise the English NHS, by removing the duties and powers of the Secretary of State to provide a comprehensive service. Thus the crossbencher Lord Owen has called this the “Secretary of State abdication bill”.
Politicians claim that ‘no change is not an option’ but we must ask why. International studies show that the NHS is highly cost effective and that outcomes are rapidly improving. NHS productivity is increasing and patient satisfaction is at the highest levels ever recorded. We have to ask - what is the problem to which this legislation is the solution?
The bill is 3 times longer than the original 1948 Health Bill and is littered with 100s of new amendments. Hamish Meldrum (chair BMA) said it was “hopelessly complex”. The new Chair of the NHS National Commissioning Board, Professor Malcolm Grant, who is a lawyer, said it was “unintelligible”.
But the latest amendments in Parliament do little address the fundamental underlying structural changes of the bill that will undermine the NHS. Andrew Lansley told his backbenchers after the listening exercise in 2011 that all red lines were still in place. The government has had 18 months to listen and they have failed to do so, despite claiming that this was about listening to doctors and patients.
There is widespread recognition amongst NHS professionals that something is deeply wrong with this bill. The level of opposition is unprecedented and ranges from the usual suspects of the health unions, right through to members of the Cabinet of the Government. There are at least 23 professional groups in opposition including frontline staff as well as NHS managers. The highly critical joint editorial from the BMJ, HSJ and Nursing Times was a watershed moment.
Surveys of the RCGP have shown that the vast majority of GPs want the bill withdrawn. Doctors wish to try and improve local healthcare (via commissioning) but not via this damaging Health Bill. There is absolutely no need for this Bill for doctor led commissioning to successfully take place.
Clare Gerada (Chair of RCGP) has stated:
“GPs don’t think the bill is going to create a patient led NHS, they don’t think it is going to increase autonomy, they don’t think it is going to improve patient care, and they don’t think it is going to improve healthcare inequalities”
Professor Lyndsey Davies, Chair of the UK Faculty of Public Health, which has just publicly called for withdrawal of the bill, has stated that: “the majority of our members now believe that the Health and Social Care Bill, if passed, will damage the NHS and the health of people in England”
Mark Pearson, head of health at the OECD says
"The UK is one of the best performers in the world. But outcomes are not what you expect because there is a big reform every five years. We calculate that each reform costs two years of improvements in quality. No country reforms its health service as frequently as the UK,"
When it was put to Pearson, a respected economist, that the NHS faces its biggest upheaval in 60 years with the coalition's health bill, he said: "The NHS is so central to the political process that every politician has to promise to improve the NHS. But there's no big reform that will improve it. Better to let it bed down and tinker rather than wondering about more or less competition. It is less the type of system that counts, but rather how it is managed."
President of the RCPCH, Professor Terence Stephenson, said:
“It is clear that a substantial majority of our voting members believe that the Health and Social Care Bill carries risk for children and young people. Despite revisions and assurances from Government, there remains widespread and deep concern amongst not only our members, but also the wider health profession and public, about the Bill’s impact on patient care.”
The Medical Royal Colleges have an important role to play in opposing the bill. Their remit is teaching, training, and standards of care and for these reasons they should be very concerned about the effect of market reforms on medical training and standards.
It is common knowledge that the government has recently applied pressure to the Medical Royal Colleges not to come out publicly against the bill. How can legislation that is meant to empower us be forced through by threatening us? This behaviour is indicative of how very afraid the government are of opposition from our professional bodies.
Doctors are ready to get behind their College to back them every step of the way.
It is not too late to stop this bill. The argument that is currently being used i.e. there is more pain in stopping than dropping the bill is nonsense. If you are in a hole you should stop digging. There are many coherent suggestions as to how to stabilise the situation we now find ourselves in. Having got us into a mess it is unacceptable to use the mess as an excuse to press on with the bill in the face of opposition from the vast majority of professionals.
We must stand firmly together for what we believe is right. We must stand firmly together against political interference in our clinical judgement. Only in this way can we gain respect from those we represent and those we deal with, only in this way will we gain real influence and only in this way can we protect the profession and our patients now and in the future.




www.callonyourcollege.blogspot.com

St Pauls Occupy Site Evicted Last Night

St Pauls Occupy Site Evicted Last Night

An anti-capitalist demonstration that saw protesters camp outside St Paul's Cathedral in London has been brought to an end by bailiffs and police.

Protesters staging Occupy London were refused permission by the Court of Appeal last week to challenge orders evicting them from the cathedral steps, where they had been living in tents since October 15 last year.

The City of London Corporation called on protesters to remove their tents voluntarily, but around 50 or 60 refused to budge.

Some protesters created makeshift barriers out of wooden shelving units as police moved in to help bailiffs clear the camp.

Police said 20 people had been arrested but the operation was largely peaceful.

Giles Fraser, who resigned as canon chancellor of St Paul's rather than see protesters cleared out by force, said: "Riot police clearing the steps of St Paul's Cathedral was a terrible sight. This is a sad day for the Church."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/police-evict-protesters-st-pauls-003237327.html

Busy Weekend

Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend, it was middle daughters birthday on Friday and her sisters bought concert tickets for them all for tonight. So; Saturday I had youngest daughter, plus friend, plus dog, plus grandson staying overnight. I was the babysitter/ dog sitter while youngest plus friend hit the town. This morning the dog and I walked by the sea to give daughter plus friend time to recuperate and maker them selves presentable, ready for tonight. The walk was lovely. The sky had a streak of orange right across the horizon and there was a pool of bright light in the middle of the sea. It was quite spectacular; the photograph doesn’t show how dramatic it was.

As we walked an old aircraft flew overhead and was silhouetted against the sky. This after noon eldest daughter and middle daughter arrived with the other three grandchildren.

We all ate cake; birthday daughter was delighted with the cake I bought her. I work with a woman who is starting her own cake making business, and the cake tasted as good as it looked.
My daughter has had her driving license for a while but only recently managed to buy herself a modest little car, she loves her little car. It has made life so much easier for her. Which is why I asked for her cake to have a picture of the car on it. Apparently you can buy special printers and edible inks and print out any picture to decorate a cake. I didn’t know that but every one seemed impressed with the results. Her name looked like a car license plate and the black ‘flowers’ around the edge were really her alloy wheels.

This is the first time I have had more than the odd half hour peace this weekend. I now have two grandchildren returned to their fathers while the girls go to their concert, one granddaughter asleep and one grandson about to go to bed. Last time I looked the dog was happily curled up around the granddaughter feet. It’s been busy but it was great. Hope your weekend was too.

Art Sunday; Maidens of the Sea

This weeks Art Sunday is entitled 'Maidens of the Sea’. This is in appreciation of the lovely jewelry Mel the mermaid sent to me.

Top picture; The Little Mermaid (Danish: Den lille havfrue) is a statue of a mermaid in Langelinie, Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue (with a height of 1.25 metres (4 ft) is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction.

The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre and asked the primaballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. The statue's head was modelled after Price, but as the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor's wife, Eline Eriksen, was used for the body.

Edmund Dulac

First of the paintings are the Original illustrations by Edmund Dulac drawn for Andersons classic fairy tale ‘’The little Mermaid’’, in the Stories from Hans Christian Andersen’ ; published  in 1911;

The little mermaid by Hans Anderson; Written between the lines of this fable about personal sacrifice was a far more personal story. Many scholars believe that this story is probably Andersen’s most autobiographical work. The writer had a history of falling in love with people he could not have. This tale of unreciprocated love could well be his own; shortly before he wrote it he experienced unrequited love when Edvard Collin, a love interest, did not return his affections and married someone else.  Andersen’s disappointment is the basis for The Little Mermaid.”

Edmund Dulac (born Edmond Dulac, October 22, 1882 – May 25, 1953) was a French book illustrator. Born in Toulouse, France, he began his career by studying law at the University of Toulouse. He also studied art, switching to it full time after he became bored with law, and having won prizes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He spent a very brief period at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1904 before moving to London.

In London, the 22-year old Frenchman was picked up by J.M. Dent and given a commission to illustrate Jane Eyre. He then began an association with the Leicester Gallery and Hodder & Stoughton; the gallery commissioned paintings from Dulac which they sold; the rights to the paintings were purchased by Hodder & Stoughton, who used them as illustrations in illustrated books, publishing one book a year. Books produced under this arrangement by Dulac include Stories from The Arabian Nights in 1907, with 50 colour images; an edition of William Shakespeare's The Tempest in 1908, with 40 colour illustrations; The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in 1909, with 20 colour images; The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales in 1910; Stories from Hans Christian Andersen in 1911; The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe in 1912, with 28 colour images and many monotone illustrations; and Princess Badoura in 1913.
Dulac became a naturalized British Citizen on Feb 17 1912.

Next; 'Andromeda' and 'Naiads of the Sea' by Gustave Dore

The story of Andromeda.

Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia had boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, and Poseidon offended had sent a sea monster to ravage the country. The monster could be diverted from utter destruction of the land only by Andromeda's being offered to him and accordingly, she was chained to a rock on th seashore. She was rescued however, by Perseus who passed by on his return from decapitating Medusa. He killed the monster and turn her uncle and others, who opposed his marrying the maiden in to stone by exposing the head of Medusa. Perseus, Andromeda, Cassipeia and even the monster were dignified by being turned into constellations. The sea monster is Cetus.

'Naiads of the Sea'

Another Gustave,

this time Gustav Wertheimer an Austrian Artist.     

1847 – 1902

His specialty was;    Figures, Marine, Mythology & Saints
These two are called

''Kiss of the wave'' and ''Kiss of the siren''.

Herbert James Draper
(1863 – 22 September 1920)

He was an English Classicist painter whose career began in the Victorian era and extended through the first two decades of the 20th century. Born in London, the son of a jeweller named Henry Draper and his wife Emma, he was educated at Bruce Castle School in Tottenham and then went on to study art at the Royal Academy. He undertook several educational trips to Rome and Paris between 1888 and 1892, having won the Royal Academy Gold Medal and Travelling Studentship in 1889. In the 1890s he worked also as an illustrator, settling in London. In 1891 he married his wife Ida (née Williams), with whom he had a daughter, Yvonne. He died of arteriosclerosis at the age of 56, at his home on Abbey Road.

His paintings ''The foam spirit''

and ''the water nymph''

Yesterday, as I was putting this together a ballet happened was playing on TV. It happened to be The Little Mermaid'. Seems like a perfect way to finish. The prima ballerina of the San francisco Ballet Yuan Yuan Tan plays the mermaid; she brings something pretty special to the performance.

The final video is the same ballerina, Yuan Yuan Tam, dancing  a contemporary piece called ‘After the rain’ on a specially erected platform on the oceans edge.

Scene from John Neumeier's ballet The Little Marmaid

The Prince - Tiit Helimets
The Littlelittle Marmaid - Yuan Yuan Tan
The See Witch - Davit Karapetyan
The Poet - Lloyd Riggins
Coreography by John Neumeier
Music by Lera Auerbach
Conducted by Martin West
San Francisco Ballet
2011



 

The Greek Hero; Manolis Glezos

The Greek hero

Manolis Glezos, born 9th September 1922

Seventy years ago, Manolis Glezos surreptitiously took down the Nazi flag flying over the Acropolis. Now aged almost 90, he's taken up the fight once more. This time, against the government, EU and IMF over what he feels are unjust attacks on Greece's economic sovereignty.
In March 2010, Glezos ( age 87) was participating in a protest demonstration in Athens, when he was hit in the face by a police tear gas canister. He was carried away injured.
In Feburary 2012, ( age amost 90) Glezos was arrested by riot police while protesting in Athens. He was sprayed with teargas by one of the police officers in that area.

The hero of Greece's anti-Nazi resistance movement, Manolis Glezos, has appealed to anti-capitalist protesters to "overturn a rotten system". Leading the fight in a very different sort of war, the leftwing icon said his nation had become a "guinea pig" for austerity measures to which no country was immune.

Full article here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/18/greece-wartime-hero-denounces-cuts

Garden 2012 no 5

This is just a quick update on the composting situation. I decided to tackle the pile of fresh compost emptied from the compost bin on Friday. I’m still not feeling 100% so settled myself in a sheltered position on the steps.

I sat and brought the compost over one bucket at a time and sieved it into the tubs ready for planting. I’m really pleased with the results; I worked my way through about half of the pile and filled one big tub and one pot of finely sieved compost ready for planting. The bits of twig and organic matter that wouldn’t go through the sieve just went back into the compost bin. The whole thing is quite labour intensive, but it’s also satisfying to know I’ve reduced my contribution to landfill and returned all organic matter back to the earth. The only real problem was dragging the full up tub back off the steps and into position, must admit I never thought of the weight once it was full.

Garden 2012 no 4

Garden 2012 no 4

I’ve spend most of the weekend suffering the cold, runny nose, shivers and back to bed, but before I felt really bad, I manage to spend a couple of hours in the garden on Friday.

I spent quite a long time rearranging and moving my herbs. The reason for this was to make more space for the vegetable plot. I’ve not dug the extra yet but at least I can see what space I have. It may not look like much but its surprising how little space you need to plant a couple of rows of veg. Next to go in will be carrot and beetroot seeds which means I better get a move on and dig out the extension to the vegetable plot.

I’ve acquired another set of native hedgerow bushes and made spaces for some of them just inside the fence. I planted Holly, Hawthorn and dog rose. My daughter also took some, she has a much bigger garden than mine. I was a bit worried about over planting the hedge until I looked at one of the natural hedges in the nature trail. The old hedgerow seem to have little saplings growing every where, but only the best of them survive and I figured if this is the way nature does it then I guess its good enough for me.

Once the saplings were in I scattered a box of assorted wild flower seeds among them and gently smoothed over a thin layer of soil. The only other seeds I sowed that day were some spinach seeds. I now have lettuce, radish and spinach seeds planted in tubs at the side of the vegetable garden.

I’ve never forced rhubarb before and wanted to check how it was doing, when I lifted the pot off the top I saw the tiny bud of pink there. Mt rhubarb has never started this early before so I’m assuming I’ve done the right thing. I’m not too worried about the rhubarb, even if the forcing method doesn’t work this plants seems virtually indestructible which means I’ll get stalks from it later in the year. I know rhubarb leaves are really poisonous, but I’ve always composted them, now I’m wondering if I should allow them to compost because the compost is being used to grow food. I’ve never read that you can’t compost rhubarb leaves, but now I’m not sure,  does any one know??


The last thing I did was to empty out the compost bin. It looks as if I’ve allowed it to dry out too much but on the whole, it’s a good pile of earth I can return to the garden. I need to sieve it, there are some bits of twig, egg shells and cardboard that didn’t rot down, but among all that there is also a good amount that is usable.  I have a system now, I have two compost bins; I use one all year for one year, then let it stand for another year, and empty it at the start of the third year. While the first one is standing, the second one is in use. When the first one is emptied (now) the second one is left to stand for a year and the first one is used again. This time next year I shall empty out the second one and start all over again.

A Greek Tragedy

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
- John F. Kennedy

A Greek Tragedy

What is happening in Greece has happened over many years in poor African countries, why should be we be surprised that Greek hospitals are running out of medicines, that Greek pensioners pay more than half of their meager pension back as  ‘austerity tax’? Why should the world be surprised at any of this when we already  know that debt repayment was allowed to completely destroy fragile health services and education systems in countless developing countries across the world. Greece is being forced into poverty unknown in modern Europe by the austerity restrictions demanded by IMF and the EU.  None of us can afford to sit back smugly and think it couldn’t happen here, because it could, the next European economy to collapse could be Portugal or Spain or even Ireland, none of us are safe. And if our economy completely collapses do you think the elite bunch of millionaires running this country are going to suffer…………..I think not.

. One in five adults and one in two young people in Greece are unemployed. Homelessness, which was hardly known in Athens before the crisis, has become widespread. Tens of thousands of small businesses have gone bankrupt due to drastic tax increases.

The wealthy Greek elite are hardly affected by the austerity measures. According to Handelsblatt, they have deposited €560 billion in foreign accounts, a sum nearly twice as large as Greece's entire national debt.
the IMF are demanding budget cuts of €3.3 billion for this year alone—and all at the expense of the working class.

Health spending is to be cut by €1.1 billion,
15,000 state employees will be sacked in the coming year,
150,000 are to be made redundant over the next four years.
The federal minimum wage, upon which 300,000 people depend, is to be reduced from €750 to €600,
 unemployment benefits reduced from €460 to €360 a month.
Supplementary pensions, which many Greeks depend upon for their survival, will be cut by 15 percent.

Private sector wages are to be reduced by 20 percent
"Because the lowered minimum wage will provide the base line for future wage negotiations, wage cuts are expected to be major," said James Nixon of the Société Générale bank.


The more I trawled YouTube looking for videos and the more I trawled the net looking for other peoples opinions, the more I found ordinary people waking up to the fact that democracy is dead and the rich and powerful rule the world.


There is no democracy any more, the rich and powerful make all the decisions, control the wealth and don’t give a dam about the rest of us. We all need to wake up.

I happened to visit another page here and found a whole lot of links and videos relating to the Greek situation, thanks Tracey for allowing me to re-post
http://stillwandering.multiply.com/journal/item/2379/Greeks_R_Us



This guy is also worth a visit.

Cynical
http://youpayyourcrisis.blogspot.com/2012/02/greece-default-or-devastation.html

http://youpayyourcrisis.blogspot.com/2012/02/appeal-for-solidarity-with-people-of.html?showComment=1329562166218#comment-c5846775331975053560

Disability benefit cuts.

you think we ( in the UK) look after our disabled, think again. And if the government has its way, things are about to get a whole lot worse.
In Scotland we are in a precarious position, our devolved government has voiced its opposition to these cuts but; at the moment they are powerless to act against them because ‘work and pensions’ is not a devolved department of government. At the moment the DWP ( department of work and pensions) is governed from Westminster for the whole of the UK.

This is what the SNP MSP for Glasgow Bob Doris has to say,


“If the UK Government press on with plans to compel sick and disabled people, including those with mental health issues into long term compulsory unpaid work or to lose benefits is simply unacceptable.
“For the DWP to call this an 'incentive' is simply farcical and like so much of its welfare reforms the UK Government need to think again before significant and long term damage is done to many of Scotland's most vulnerable groups.
“If work and pensions were devolved to the Scottish Parliament we would be able to have a system based on fairness that meets the needs and demands of everyone in Scotland including the most needy and sick people who are limited in their ability to work.”
http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2012/feb/uk-gov-workfare-scheme-incentive%E2%80%99-farcical

If you wonder what sort of people want to push sick and disabled people further into poverty………its this sort;
The DWP is governed by;
The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP Secretary of State Overall responsibility
The Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP Minister of State Employment
Steve Webb MP Minister of State Pensions
Maria Miller MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Disabled people
Lord Freud Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Welfare reform

The Liberal/Conservative coalition government of 2010 has been described as a 'coalition of millionaires' because 23 of its 29 MP's who are entitled to attend Cabinet meetings have assets and investments estimated to be worth more than £1million.
Iain Duncan Smith is one of the 23 millionaires, he is also an advocate of strict immigration controls because he believes ‘’ tighter immigration controls are vital if Britain is to avoid losing another generation to dependency and hopelessness”. Presumably from that statement he believes immigrants are ‘’dependant and hopeless’. He lied on his CV claiming he has a degree and various other qualifications, in fact he has no formal qualifications. He supported the launching of a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, prior to the 2003 invasion, because he argued 'It’s now time for the prime minister to explain to the British people what he already knows - that Iraq is a clear and growing danger to Britain’’.
Chris Grayling, the Minister of State for Employment is also a homophobic who publicly supported the ‘right’ of B&B owners to refuse entry to gay and lesbian couples. He was one of the main culprits in the parliamentary expenses scandal. Between 2001 and 2009 he claimed parliamentary expenses for a flat in Pimlico, close to the House of Commons, despite having a constituency home less than 17 miles away.. He also owned two buy to let properties in Wimbledon. Grayling says he uses the flat when "working very late" because he needs to "work very erratic and late hours most days when the House of Commons is sitting." During the Parliamentary expenses scandal, The Daily Telegraph reported that Grayling refitted and redecorated the flat in 2005 at a cost of thousands of pounds to the tax payer. And unsurprisingly he is also one of the many millionaires in government.
And these are the people who want to impose draconian cuts on the most vulnerable members of society ………the only surprise is that any one voted for them in the first place.
We ALL  need to be vocal in fighting these cuts.

Song Saturday; Eva Cassidy

I've got a 4 day long-weekend break................and I have a cold, nasty thumping headache, runny nose and itchy eyes............I need some soothing music.

Art Sunday; Alberto Burri

http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/burri1.html  
 

Alberto Burri Biography

1915           Born March 12 in Città di Castello, Italy
1940           Medical Degree, University of Perugia,
1940           Served as a physician during World War II
1944           Capture in Tunisia,  interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Texas 1944           He started to paint on the burlap that was at hand
1946           Released from camp and moved to Rome,
1947           First solo show,  Galleria La Margherita, Rome
1949           Experimented with various unorthodox materials,
 - 1950        Fabricating,  tactile collages with pumice, tar, and burlap


1953           Recognised in America,
                   Group exhibition 'Younger European Painters',
                   Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,
                  Also Frumkin Gallery, Chicago, and the Stable Gallery, New York


1959           Won the UNESCO Prize at the São Paulo Bienal
1977           Retrospective of work inaugurated, University of California
1994           Presented Italian Order of Merit
1995           Died February 15 in Nice, France

b. 1915, Città di Castello, Italy; d. 1995, Nice, France

Alberto Burri was born in 1915, in Città di Castello, Italy. Burri began not as an artist but as a doctor, earning his medical degree in 1940 from the University of Perugia and serving as a physician during World War II.  After  his unit’s capture in Tunisia, 1944, he became interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in  Texas. This is  where he started to paint on the burlap that was readily at hand.


(Burlap is a woven cloth created from jute, hemp or flax fibers. These plants are not known for their silky or cottony textures, so the result is a coarse fabric with a large weave pattern and natural beige coloring. Burlap is often used to form storage bags for grains, potatoes and other bulky materials. Burlap bags can be imprinted with rudimentary logos or trademarks to help identify their contents.)

After his release from the prisoner of war camp in 1946, Burri moved to Rome and held his first solo show at the Galleria La Margherita the following year.

Around 1949–50 Burri experimented with various unorthodox materials, fabricating tactile collages with pumice, tar, and burlap. At this time, he also commenced the Mold and the Hunchback series; the latter were humped canvases that broke with the traditional two-dimensional plane.
 

His preoccupation with ambiguity of image and use of non-art materials led Burri to help set up  'Gruppo Origine', a group of contemporary Italian artists in 1950. This was in opposition to mainstream movement in decorative abstraction. The artists in 'Gruppo Origine' exhibited their work together in 1951 at the Galleria dell’Obelisco, Rome.


From 1953 onwards Burri became better known in America. His  work was included in the group exhibition Younger European Painters at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and other galleries throughout America. In the mid-1950s Burri began burning his mediums, a technique he termed 'combustione'. These charred wood and burlap works were first exhibited in 1957 at the Galleria dell’Obelisco. In 1958 his welded iron sheets were shown at the Galleria Blu, Milan. In 1959 he won the UNESCO Prize at the São Paulo Bienal.


Pushing  the combustione technique even further, in the 1960’s  he started to burn plastic. These works were exhibited in 1962 at the Marlborough Galleria, Rome.

Burri turned to another industrial material, Cellotex, in 1979, and continued to use it throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

( Cellotex is a leading brand of rigid insulation. Celotex is made by blending together materials to form a rigid foam product. The heat generated during the reaction enable gases to evaporate and become trapped within cells delivering premium thermal performance characteristics.)

 The artist died on February 15, 1995, in Nice, France.