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Dep Art Gallery
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Milan, Italy
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Alighiero Boetti

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(1940 - 1994), Italy

Alighiero Boetti (Turin, 1940–Rome 1994) or Alighiero e Boetti ( 'e' means 'and') as the Artist signed his works from 1973 on–was born in Turin, where he started his activity joining the Arte Povera movement in January 1967.

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In 1972 he moved to Rome, where he discovered the pleasure of light and colours, far from the austerity of Turin. 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. 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. Among such pieces, the ballpoint pen 'Monochromes' (blue, black, red, green) with a white coded writing coming out of the evenly doodled coloured surface; or the tapestries embroidered on cloth, not only the 'World Maps' but also the multi-coloured 'Magic Squares' of texts written in Italian and Persian as well as the 'Tutto' (Everything), dense puzzles where indeed everything can be found (newspaper silhouettes, figures of animals and shapes of domestic objects...).

Other types of Boetti's works are exclusively executed by his own hand: for example, his Postal Works that play on the mathematical permutation of different stamps, on the unpredictable adventure of a postal journey, and also (from 1980 on) on the hidden charm of written messages travelling inside the envelopes. Besides, also his early 1970s systematic 'exercises' by pencil on squared paper, based on musical and mathematical rhythms. And finally, throughout the 80s and 90s, here is his mixed technique on paper, in particular his colourful compositions with happy flocks of animals sliding along, with an explicit reminiscence of Etruscan or Pompeian ornaments.

The idea of time, with its fascinating and ineluctable passing by, probably is the unifying topic in Boetti's typological and iconographical plurality. Among the last works some are monumental indeed, such as the fifty one tapestries with texts in Italian and Persian (shown in Paris, at Les Magiciens de la Terre exhibition, 1989), or else the fifty kilims exposed at the Magasin in Grenoble in December 1993, which was the last exhibition inaugurated in presence of the Artist, yet very ill at that time. Alighiero Boetti exposed his works in the most prestigious and emblematic exhibitions of his generation, from When Attitudes Become Form (1969) to Contemporanea (Rome 1973), from Identité Italienne (Paris, 1981) to The Italian Metamorphosis 1943–1968 (Guggenheim Museum New York, 1994). Works of his were exposed at six editions of the Venice Biennale; his personal exhibition room in the 1990 edition was awarded a special prize, and a posthumous homage show was presented in the 2001 edition. Not only his works but his choices as an artist strongly influenced the generation of artists that followed and many young people of the new millennium, in Italy and in the world.

Text courtesy Dep Art Gallery.

Recent Exhibitions

Contemporary art exhibition, Alighiero Boetti, Alighiero Boetti. The Fantastic World at Dep Art Gallery, Milan, Italy Closed 28 February–26 May 2018 Alighiero Boetti Alighiero Boetti. The Fantastic World

Alighiero Boetti In Ocula Magazine

Artissima 2021: Artist Highlights Ocula Insight Artissima 2021: Artist Highlights By Stephanie Bailey, Turin

Ocula Magazine features a selection of artist highlights from the 28th edition of Artissima.

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Galerie Chantal Crousel at 40: Looking Back, Looking Forward Ocula Conversation Galerie Chantal Crousel at 40: Looking Back, Looking Forward By Stephanie Bailey, Paris

Niklas Svennung and Chantal Crousel reflect on the gallery's history and future projects.

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Alighiero Boetti In Related Press

The true scale of Alighiero Boetti’s achievements Related Press The true scale of Alighiero Boetti’s achievements 12 June 2017, Apollo Magazine

‘I am a creator of rules,’ Alighiero Boetti once said of his working method. ‘And once I’ve created these rules, these games, these mechanisms, I can play or make other people play.’ The current exhib

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Major shows in Venice and Paris to map Alighiero Boetti’s monumental spectrum Related Press Major shows in Venice and Paris to map Alighiero Boetti’s monumental spectrum 21 December 2016, The Art Newspaper

We want to start from a close-up and intimate exploration of his initial concepts and then move on to the bigger iterations of those same ideas.

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Major shows in Venice and Paris to map Alighiero Boetti’s monumental spectrum Related Press Major shows in Venice and Paris to map Alighiero Boetti’s monumental spectrum 19 December 2016, The Art Newspaper

Alighiero Boetti (1940–1994), the post-war Italian conceptual artist whose star has been in the ascendant in recent years, will be the subject of major exhibitions in Venice and Paris.

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Art Sales: globe-trotting gallerists Related Press Art Sales: globe-trotting gallerists 8 March 2015, The Telegraph

One of the most radical changes in the art world in the last 20 years is the way in which art fairs have become indispensable to a gallery’s economic well being. A report commissioned by The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht in 2014 said that a broad section of the world’s galleries made an average 33 per cent of their income through...

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Related Press Read More (4) In Related Press

Alighiero Boetti In Video & Audio

Alighiero Boetti Il mondo fantastico Related Video & Audio Alighiero Boetti Il mondo fantastico 20 July 2020, Dep Art Gallery

What's the good of this video if not to bring back to life the exhibition [Alighiero Boetti][0]. Il Mondo Fantastico, which, in turn, had re-proposed a great installation made of little plastic anim

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Alighiero Boetti | 2016 | London Related Video & Audio Alighiero Boetti | 2016 | London 12 March 2020, Tornabuoni Art Fade out copy. View More Alighiero Boetti: Minimum/Maximum | 2017 | Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice Related Video & Audio Alighiero Boetti: Minimum/Maximum | 2017 | Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice 23 July 2017, Tornabuoni Art

Michele Casamonti talks about the exhibition Alighiero Boetti: Minimum/Maximum in Venice. From 12 May to 12 July 2017, the Fondazione Cini, in collaboration with Tornabuoni Art and the Archivio Ali

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Alighiero Boetti | 2017 | Paris Related Video & Audio Alighiero Boetti | 2017 | Paris 28 March 2017, Tornabuoni Art

Roberto Casamonti, Matteo Boetti et Agata Boetti parlent du travail d'Alighiero Boetti à l'occasion de l'exposition organisée chez Tornabuoni Art Paris du 3 février au 8 avril 2017.

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Video & Audio Read More (4) In Video & Audio
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