Alberto Burri was born on 12 March 1915 born to Pietro Burri, a tuscan wine merchant and Carolina Torreggiani, an umbrian elementary school teacher. Between 1934 and 1939, he attended at the University of Perugia, after graduating from the Annibale Mariotti high school, he enrolled in the faculty of medicine at the University of the same city, graduating on 12 June 1940 with a doctor degree, and was a military doctor for four years in World War II. He claimed he studied art history, because he wanted to be able to understand the works of art that surrounded him. He also studied Greek, a language in which he became proficient and later in life was able to read and enjoy Classical Greek literature. While studying medicine, he specialized in tropical medicine and decided to work in Africa. With an precocious voluntary experience in the Italo-Ethiopian War, Burri was then recalled to military service on 12 October 1940, two days after Italy's entrance into World War II, and sent to Libya as a combat medic. On 8 May 1943 the unit he was part of was captured by the British in Tunisia and was later turned over to the Americans and transferred to Hereford, Texas in a prisoner-of-war camp housing around 3000 Italian officers, where he began painting. After his liberation in 1946, he moved to Rome and devoted himself exclusively to painting; his first solo exhibition took place at the La Margherita Gallery in 1947. He then exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery in New York and at the Gallery de France in Paris.