Alighiero Boetti (a/k/a Alighiero e Boetti), (b. 1940, Turin; d. 1994, Rome) is an Italian conceptual artist,
considered to be a member of the art movement Arte Povera.
Career
Alighiero Boetti, an autodidact, was a prolific artist, whose career began in the early 1960s, when he was associated with
other Italian artists who have become known under the label Arte Povera, a term coined by
Italian art critic Germano Celant. Boetti worked with a wide array of materials, tools,
and techniques, including cement, cloth, electric light, wood, pall pen (Biro), and even the postal system. Some of Boetti's
artistic strategies are considered typical for the Arte Povera (literally, "poor art") movement, namely the use the most modest
of materials and techniques to create works of art, so as to take art off its pedestal of attributed "dignity". Boetti also took
a keen interest in the relationship between chance and order, in various systems of classification (grids, maps, etc.), and
non-Western traditions and cultural practices.
An example of his Arte Povera work is Yearly Lamp (1966), a light bulb in a wooden box, which randomly switches itself
on for eleven seconds each year. This work focuses both on the transformative powers of energy, and on the possibilities and
limitations of chance - the likelihood of a viewer being present at the moment of illumination is remote.
Boetti disassociated himself from the Arte Povera movement in the early 1970s, without, however, completely abandoning some of
its democratic, anti-elitist, strategies. He renamed himself as a dual persona Alighiero e Boetti (“Alighiero and Boetti”)
reflecting the opposing factors presented in his work: the individual and society, error and perfection, order and disorder.
Boetti often collaborated with other people, both artists and non-artists, giving them significant freedom in their
contributions to his works. For instance, one of the better known types of his works consists of colored letters embroidered in
grids ("arrazzi") on canvases of varying sizes, the letters upon closer inspection reading as short phrases in Italian,
for instance Ordine e Disordine ("Order and Disorder" or: "Order is Disorder") or Fuso Ma Non Confuso ("I fuse but
I don't confuse"), or similar truisms and wordplays. To create these pictures, Boetti worked with artisan embroiderers in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, to whom he gave his designs but increasingly handed over the process of selecting and combining the
colors and thus deciding the final look of the work.
Similarly, in the lavori biro ball pen paintings, he would invite friends and acquaintances, to fill large colored
sections of the work by ball pen, typically alternating between a man and a woman.
Perhaps best known is his series of large embroidered maps of the world, also created in collaboration with Afghan and
Pakistani crafts-workers. The maps delineate the political boundaries of the countries, with each of them being embroidered with
the design of its national flag. A chief example of this series, Mappa del Mondo, 1989 ("Map of the World, 1989"), is on
view in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (see Key Works).
Select Exhibitions
Alighiero Boetti 1965 - 1994 - Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy, 1996. Also at Musée d'Art
Moderne, Villeneuve s'Ascq, and Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna. Catalogue
Alighiero Boetti: Mettere al mondo il mondo ("Bringing the World into the World") - Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt
am Main, Germany, and Galerie Jahrhunderthalle Hoechst, Germany, 1998. Catalogue, edited by Rolf Lauter (see
Literature)
Zero to Infinity, Arte Povera 1962-1972 - Tate Modern, London, 2001 [1], Walker
Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, MI, 2002 [2]
When 1 is 2: The Art of Alighiero e Boetti - Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, 2002. Catalogue (see
Literature)
Key Works (Selection)
- Mappa del Mondo, 1989 ("Map of the World, 1989"), Afghan embroidery on fabric, Collection of the Museum of Modern Art,
New York [3] (image)
- Tutto ("Everything"), 1993, Afghan embroidery on fabric, collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt am Main,
Germany [4] (no image available).
Literature
- Rolf Lauter, Alighiero e Boetti: Mettere il mondo al mondo (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 1988, in German, catalogue for
exhibtion Mettere al mondo il mondo).
- Annelie Pohlen, Alighiero e Boetti - 1965 bis 1991, (Bonner Kunstverein, 1992, in German)
- Jean-Christophe Ammann, Alighiero e Boetti - 1965-1994 (Edizioni Mazzotta, 1996, in Italian)
- Collaboration Parkett No. 24 (art magazine, Parkett Verlag Zurich, Switzerland, 1990, in German and English).
- Paola Morsiani and Barry Schwabsky (eds.), When 1 is 2: The Art of Alighiero e Boetti, 2002, 112 pages, 33 color, 40
black-and-white reproductions. ISBN 0-936080-75-2
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
- Website of the Alighiero Boetti Foundation (Fondazione Alighiero Boetti), in Italian: [5]
- Website of the Alighiero Boetti Archives (Archivio Alighiero Boetti), in English and Italian: [6]
- Unofficial website devoted to Alighiero e Boetti and his work, in Italian: [7]
- More examples of Alighiero e Boetti's work, including lavori biro and embroideries, from the website of the Sperone
Westwater Gallery in New York: [8]pms:Alighiero
Boetti
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