(Turin 1940–1994 Rome)
Untitled, 1964, signed and dated 17/5/64, pencil on paper, 62.5 x 48.5 cm, framed

This work is registered in the Archivio Boetti, Rome under the archive no. 5198 and is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity

Provenance:
Carlina Galleria d’Arte, Turin
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Cremona, Gli anni sessanta dall’oggetto all’Arte Povera, Fondazione
Città di Cremona, 16 May - 20 June 2008 (label on the reverse)

Literature:
J. C. Amman, Alighiero Boetti. Catalogo generale, Mondadori Electa, Milan 2009, vol. I, p. 127, no. 28 with ill.

Boetti moved to Paris in the autumn of 1962 and stayed there for most of the next two years. He saw at first hand the abstract lyrical works of De Stael, the tactile works of Dubuffet and Fautrier, and calligraphic Zen painting from Japan in a historical exhibition at the Museum of Petit Palais. [...] Early in 1963 he learned the technique of engraving in Johnny Friedlander’s studio. [...] By the autumn of 1964 he continued to make engravings but his main focus was on large drawings in pencil on cardboard. These works were subtly modulated from black to grey, as if they were engravings done with variable concentrations of ink.
The work offered here (executed on 17 May 1964) is part of this series. In particular, it is one of the first Parisian examples characterised by organic, non-figurative forms. After returning to Turin in the autumn of 1964, his drawings began reproducing cold mechanical outlines traced using old Fiat engine gaskets or vaguely Pop comic strips.
cfr. Annemarie Sauzeau, Le opere e i giorni, in “Alighiero Boetti. Catalogo generale”, Vol. I, pp. 23-24