Having moved to Rome, he decided to dedicate himself to painting, sharing a studio with his sculptor friend Mannucci. It was in those years that Burri began producing his first true artworks still within the figurative art scene. In 1947, thanks to the support of the magnate architect Amedeo Luccichenti, he proposed his first solo exhibition at the La Margherita gallery on Gaspero del Corso, with poetic introductions by Libero De Libero and Leonardo Sinisgalli.
It was precisely in that "Roman" period that Alberto Burri came into contact with the abstract-concrete art promoted by the Art-Club circuit in Rome, with which he continued to exhibit until the early fifties, not only in Italy. Thanks to this collaboration and the artistic proposals of the circle, Alberto Burri began to develop a strong interest in abstract art, which would later lead him to fully embrace the canons of non-figurative art. Indeed, in his second solo exhibition also at the Galleria la Margherita, Alberto Burri presented his first completely abstract artworks, with filiform lines and extremely dynamic strokes reminiscent of famous artists like Mirò and Paul Klee. Still in the so-called Roman period, he began to develop the first artworks composed of multiple materials on canvas such as oil, pumice stone, tar, vinavil, and sand, creating extremely original artworks aimed at breaking down the traditional and more formal composition and organization of the visual artwork.
After Rome, Alberto Burri decided to move to Paris, where he came into contact with artists and the new artistic sensibility of the Galleria René Drouin, which exhibited many abstract artists of the period, including the Italian Magnanelli.
However, in Paris, one of the most significant and impactful experiences for Burri was the visit to Mirò's studio, an experience the artist carried with him for a long time, both emotionally and especially artistically.
The 1950s were definitely a turning point for Alberto Burri and his artworks. In these years he began to characterize his artistic touch and distinguish himself for his specific style characterized by the mixture of some recurring materials, such as jute, pumice stone, and tar. It was precisely in these years that he created the first series of "Muffe" and "Gobbi", exploiting the worn jute of sacks on one hand and the efflorescences induced on pumice by combining it with traditional oil painting on the other.
In 1950, he also executed the large "Pannello Fiat" (a square almost 5 m on each side) for the exhibition hall of a Roman car dealership.
In 1952 he exhibited among other works "Lo Strappo", one of the first famous "Burri sacks", which a few months later was rejected by the Venice Biennale. Instead, the drawing "Studio per lo strappo" was accepted in the "black and white" section of the Venetian exhibition and was purchased by Lucio Fontana. On May 17 of the same year, Alberto Burri signed together with other avant-garde artists the "Manifesto of the spatial movement for television", promoted by Fontana himself.
International fame for Alberto Burri and his artworks came in 1953, with exhibitions in Chicago and New York, which marked a real turning point in the career of the Umbrian artist. So much so that a couple of years later the famous art critic and then director of the Guggenheim in New York decided to publish an entire monograph dedicated to Burri and his art.
>In 1954 Alberto Burri began producing his artworks in the studio on via Salaria, joining the group of artists supported by the French critic Michel Tapié, father of Art Autre. Towards the end of the same year, he introduced fire into his works, creating the first small burns on paper, which would become one of the artist's most beloved series of artworks.
In 1957, he created the first "ferri", Burri's artworks in which the artist gave two-dimensionality to his works by exploiting welding and metalworking, creating truly dynamic and multi-dimensional artworks.
In the 1970s, as a crowning achievement of his insatiable thirst for innovation and experimentation, Burri also ventured into Land-Art, very popular at the time, inaugurating the famous cycle of "Cretti", including the famous cement shroud, a work of immense visual impact, with which he covered the remains of earthquake-stricken Gibellina, following the severe Belice earthquake of 1968.
After these experiences, Alberto Burri's interest then flowed into works of true urban planning such as the Operazione Arcevia, a project coordinated by architect Ico Parisi, for the new construction of a community to be realized in Arcevia, a municipality in the province of Ancona, with contributions from numerous artists specialized in various fields of modern and contemporary art.