signed and numbered B2769 verso- embroidery 21×22 cm
Provenance and literature
Provenance: Kunsthandel E.J. van Wisselingh & Co, Haarlem
NB: with certificate of the Archivio Alighiero Boetti. no.10891
Literature: Godfrey 2389 (B2769))
About the artist
Originally associated with the Arte Povera movement, Italian artist Alighiero Boetti (1940–1994) soon forged his own path. Beginning in the 1970s, he made a name for himself with playful, colorful embroideries that he had produced in Afghanistan. The works seem to express a mysterious system in which compositions featuring letters and words, as well as (world) maps, play a significant role. The Afghan weavers and embroiderers left their mark on a large portion of Boetti’s arazzi, for example by choosing the colors in which the letters were embroidered. Boetti sees this as a subversive act, a way to disrupt the art world. His arazzi play with the concept of “signature” and pay no heed to the distinction between “unique work” and “work in edition”—precisely what the art market derives its raison d’être from.