Alighiero Boetti Biography and Artwork

born Turin (ITALY) 1940 died Rome (ITALY) 1994

Alighiero Boetti was born in Turin, Italy in 1940. Although not formally trained in art, Boetti was preoccupied with the theory of creativity from an early age. Traveling to Afghanistan at the beginning of the 1970s, he was introduced to the traditional craft of embroidery, which marked a turning point in the artist's career. His fundamental concern with the relationship between "order" and "disorder" is manifest in his grid structures, derived from the "magical squares", that feature sayings and aphorisms that stem from cultural, philosophical, mathematical and linguistic contexts.

Having shown in Milan and Turin, Boetti had his first US solo exhibition in New York at John Weber Gallery in 1973. He continued to show throughout Italy and the United States until his premature death in 1994.

He has been honored post-humously with several large-scale exhibitions, most notably at the Museum Moderne Kunst in Vienna in 1997 and the Museum Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main in 1998. The 2001 exhibition with Gagosian Gallery was organized in conjunction with the Archivo Boetti in Rome, their first collaboration with a commercial gallery, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Select Timeline

Select Exhibitions

Alighiero Boetti 1965 - 1994 - Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy, 1996
Alighiero Boetti: Mettere al mondo il mondo ("Bringing the World into the World") - Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1998
Zero to Infinity, Arte Povera 1962-1972 - Tate Modern, London, 2001
When 1 is 2: The Art of Alighiero e Boetti - Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, 2002

Select Works

Citta di Torino - 1967
Manifesto 1967 - 1970
16 dicembre 2040 11 luglio 2023 - 1971
Calligrafia - 1971
"Untitled" - Victoria Boogie Woogie - 1972
I sei sensi - 1973
Aerei - 1978
Simmetria Asimmetria - 1979
Salezucchero - 1980
Immaginando Tutto - 1982
Alighiero e Boetti - 1982
Dimenticare il Tempo Perduto - 1982
Verbi Riflessivi - 1983
Cinque Per Cinque Venticinque - 1983
Utile Dilettevole - 1983
Mappa del mondo - 1988
Famedivento - 1988
Fregio - 1990
Mi Fuma Il Cervello - 1993

Quotes

Publications

Quick Facts

Keywords

Alighiero Boetti, Alighiero Boetti biography, Alighiero Boetti bio, Alighiero Boetti lithograph, Alighiero Boetti serigraph, Alighiero Boetti art, Alighiero Boetti litho, Alighiero Boetti print, Alighiero Boetti poster, Alighiero Boetti visual art, Alighiero Boetti modern art, Alighiero Boetti signed artwork, Alighiero Boetti Artwork, Alighiero Boetti exhibition print, Alighiero Boetti exhibition poster