ALIGHIERO BOETTI: Pier Paolo Calzolari, Mario Merz, Giuseppe Penone & Michelangelo Pistoletto
Ben Brown Fine Arts is thrilled to announce the first solo exhibition in Hong Kong of works by Alighiero Boetti, one of the most important and influential Italian artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition will provide an extensive look at Boetti's oeuvre, including a wide range of embroideries from Mappas to small Arazzi, works on paper, kilims and sculptures.
Alighiero Boetti was born in Turin in 1940. His first works which were created in the 1960s were more object oriented and fitted well within the realms of Arte Povera. However, his work became progressively more similar to that of conceptual artists such as On Kawara (time) and Lawrence Wiener (language). Boetti used simple and often industrial materials, concentrating more on the creative conception of the work and leaving its execution to others - in case of the embroideries to Afghani women. This also enabled Boetti to integrate Eastern culture and its tradition in his works (often represented by Farsi writing) since he was very much interested in the principle of polar forces and harmonies and hence, bridging West and East. To further contextualize this comprehensive look at Boetti's oeuvre, major works by important Italian artists of the 1960s and 70s including Pier Paolo Calzolari, Mario Merz, Giuseppe Penone and Michelangelo Pistoletto will be exhibited alongside Boetti. It is this group of Italian artists who crystallised the research into spatial inquiries and the purity of form in the mid to late 20th Century.
