ART-PRESENTATION: Alighiero Boetti-A Private Collection

Dynamic and charismatic, Aligherio Boetti brought his preoccupation with opposites into his persona, signing many of his works as the twin characters “Alighiero e Boetti”, one who responded to the rational side of the world and another who embraced its irrational aspects. Many of Boetti’s works can be understood as self-portraits or as word games in which the artist is reflecting on his place in the world and on how to describe the world in his work.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery Archive

Alighiero Boetti or Alighiero e Boetti as the artist signed his works from 1973, was born in Turin, where he joined the Arte Povera in January 1967. In 1972 he moved to Rome, where he discovered the pleasure of light and colors, he abandoned Arte Povera and began a new with conceptual works employing existing systems and simple structures, often expressed through drawings and collages. In 1971, he had discovered Afghanistan and in Kabul had started an artistic collaboration with women embroiderers, creating tapestries such as his political Maps which would evolve according to the world’s political mutations. The artist took part in Documentas 5 & 7 and the Venice Biennale (1978, 1980, 1986, 1990, 1995). In 2001 the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was completely dedicated to Alighiero e Boetti’s work, when the Artistic Director was for second time (1999 & 2001) Harald Szeemann. As a conceptual and versatile artist, he has produced a great variety of artworks, delegating to other people the manual execution of some specific typologies, but in that case following very precise “Rules of the game” and even high principles such as the 1971 Nobel Price Jacques Monod’s “Chance and necessity”. The exhibition “Alighiero Boetti: A Private Collection”, present a unique single-owner collection dedicated exclusively to Alighiero Boetti’s oeuvre. Featuring over 60 works from the years 1965–1990, the Collection on display offers an opportunity to follow a collector’s long and measured process of selecting and balancing individual pieces in order to unfold the philosophical questions that motivated Boetti’s prolific making for more than forty years. The exhibition includes both rare and celebrated works from the artist’s diverse career including: Mimetico, Lampada Annuale, both 1967 Dama, 1968 Autoritratto, 1971 Lavoro Postale, 1973 Mappa, 1983-84 and Tutto, c.1987.

 

Info: , Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery, 2 Savile Row, London, Duration: 13/10-12/12/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri: 11:00-17:00, Sat: 12:00-16:00, www.luxembourgdayan.com