Time by Boetti: Libri Rossi

Valli Art Gallery is pleased to present works by the Italian conceptual artist Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994) in our New York location at the High Line Nine Galleries, Chelsea. This capsule exhibition will feature Boetti’s Libri Rossi (1992-4), a series of books that reflects the artist’s lifelong interest in order, collecting, and time.

Alighiero Boetti’s Libri Rossi is a collection of fifteen books that offer a glimpse into the mind of one the greatest Italian artists of the twentieth century. The striking red volumes, untitled and numbered in gold along their spines, consist of a collection of black and white photocopies; press cuttings, notes, photographs, drawings, sketches, and faxes comprise these enigmatic albums. Boetti binds the pages into a curated collection of re-contextualized visual materials that together form a highly subjective narrative.

As an artist fascinated with the conceptual meaning of ordering, Boetti used books to construct meaning: through the Libri Rossi, Boetti presents a sequential experience of folios. These tactile objects invite interaction, and Valli Art Gallery will be honoring Boetti’s creation by allowing visitors to handle these works of art in our New York gallery.

About the artist:
Born in Turin and educated in Italy and Paris, Alighiero Boetti was an Italian conceptual artist who was associated with the Arte Povera movement. Fascinated by mathematics, music, and patterns, Boetti’s artistic practice shifted away from that of his Arte Povera contemporaries, and towards an aesthetic vocabulary of order. He started to create his best-known pieces, the Mappa series, in 1971, and continued to work on these textile maps until his death in 1994. Boetti’s works in textile, on paper, and in mixed media have been shown around the world. In 2012 the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) presented Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan, a major comprehensive retrospective of Boetti’s works.

Alighiero Boetti’s Libri Rossi will be on display exclusively at Valli Art Gallery from October 25th to November 10th, with an opening reception on Thursday, October 25th, from 6pm to 9pm.