The Burgo collection

1997-2020. The Burgo picture calendar collection

It was flight that stood out more than twenty years ago in the paper wings that Folon created for the Group as part of its venture into calendars entrusted to the talent of celebrated illustrators. This project was the brain child of Aldo Marchi, developed over the following years by his sons Girolamo and Alberto, and acquiring a strong, unique, international identity.

The decision to entrust the calendar to a different illustrator each year has allowed the Burgo Group to host interpretations that address the theme of paper in a wholly free and varied manner. Paper in our dreams, in our lives. Paper expresses beauty, expectation, play: paper for books, origami paper, letter paper, design paper.

We will now present the history of this Collection, looking back at some of the images created by the artists and introducing them with the words that Robert Newman wrote in May 2017, on the occasion of an exhibition at the Palladian Basilica of Vicenza dedicated to the Burgo Collection. Some years have passed since that exhibition and other artists have joined the collection: Noma Bar, Emiliano Ponzi and Manuele Fior.

This is the golden age of illustration. Right now. Not the 1920s. Not the 1940s. Not even the 1960s, although I grew up in that decade and the illustrators of that time were the most important in the development of my vision. The time is now. At the turn of the century we witnessed a vibrant artistic movement of extraordinary quality. Great creativity and enthusiasm, and a feeling of unlimited potential. Never in my experience have I seen so many illustrators work at such a creative level and I don't remember there ever being such great enthusiasm for the art of illustration.

Do you need any proof of this? Look at this collection of images created for the Burgo Group's calendar, an annual graphic delight that has been repeated since 1997. Every year since then the Burgo Group has published a calendar showcasing the best of talented illustrators from Europe and the United States. The artists are assigned a simple mission: to tell the story of paper, about its many uses and about how people interact with it, particularly in connection with writing.

This collection of over a hundred images is the result of that project; a celebration of over twenty scintillating years of graphics. The results are intelligent, elegant and beautifully executed. This is one of the most magnificent collections of illustrated work that you could ever have the pleasure and joy of admiring. The talent represented here has as its creators illustrators whose careers date back to the 1950s and others who are working today. However, whether they are works created by legends like Folon or by new young stars like Shout, the thread of creativity and splendour unites them all.

Evidently, this collection is dominated by artists who were born and work in Italy, and many others who have moved to Italy from their homelands or have strong creative connections. Every exhibition starring Emanuele Luzzati, Lorenzo Mattotti, Altan, Roberto Perini, Giorgio Maria Griffa, Tullio Pericoli, Cecco Mariniello, Alessandro Sanna, Luca Caimmi and Shout can only serve to strengthen the leading role of Italian art and design (especially in Milan). But then there are the Americans (Paul Davis and Milton Glaser), the French (Folon, who comes from Belgium, and Moebius and Loustal) and the two Argentinians, Negrin and Muñoz (although both moved to Milan to continue their work). Then there is Ping Zhu from Brooklyn, the first female illustrator in the Burgo collection.

Enjoy this wonderful, exciting collection of illustrations, the best from the past two decades. These images have already brought great joy and an opportunity for contemplation to many people and I hope that they will have the same effect on those seeing them for the first time. Thirty years from now, when my daughter Ivy (who is now a teenager, but already knows she wants to be an art director) writes the essay for the Collection's 50th anniversary, it is very likely that she will say the same thing about her own era. Because, to tell the truth, the present always seems to be the golden age of illustration.

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