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Lot Essay
‘Boetti sometimes opens up a new experience in which we read words differently and appreciate the shapes and colours of letters, rather than just approaching language for its information and instrumental purposes’
(M. Godfrey, quoted in Alighiero e Boetti, London 2009, pp. 128-129).
Alighiero Boetti’s concept for his fascinating work, Da uno a dieci (arabo) (From One to Ten (Arabic)), 1980 was that of a children’s counting book. In accordance with the tradition of these books but also with the tautological and doubling nature of so much of his own work, Boetti sought to illustrate the concept of counting and the sequential growth of numbers from one to ten using numbers, letters and fingers. The pattern for the counting book, as for the present work was based on original drawings that Boetti made by tracing around his daughter’s hand as she opened one finger, then two and so on until all the fingers on both hands were displayed. Da uno a dieci (arabo) contain the name of the relevant number spelled out in Arabic numeral in a sequence of coloured squares. In this way the ten panels also chart the proliferation and growth of multiple possibilities as each panel progresses. Visually, taken as a whole, the sequential progression of the ten panels that constitute Da uno a dieci (arabo) show a spectacular burst of colour seemingly blooming from a near monochrome starting point.
Da uno a dieci (arabo) developed from a series of works in which Boetti had deliberately set about countering the notion of the spontaneous gesture in art with work that abides by a set of simple rules and yet through them creates an image illustrative of coloured variety. With its simple imagery of human hands and the logical rule and sequence of proliferation with which it and its ten fingers accords, Boetti sought to create work that expounded the establishment of the harmony between invention and a simple, logical rule or progression. Boetti demonstrates the power of human thought and the infinite amount of potential inherent within keeping faithful to the rule and the already inbuilt structures of the world around us. ‘It is like a numerical series’, Boetti said in an interview. ‘There are two elements: the series and the numbers (which are infinite). That is, there is the one (the series) and the infinite (the numbers). I remember a phrase: “Because the head is a friend to the feet and both of them to the moon and the tides.” I think that if one is to do things well, one must find oneself in that situation: one must have achieved a sort of harmony, a state of grace. It is something one has without knowing it: when you know it, you know longer have it…’ (A. Boetti, quoted in Alighiero e Boetti 1993/1962, exh. cat., MADRE, Naples, 2009, p. 36). In Da uno a dieci (arabo), this connection between the human, the numerical and the infinite potential of the wider cosmos is powerfully illustrated in a joyous, colourful and deceptively simple sequence of paper panels.
(M. Godfrey, quoted in Alighiero e Boetti, London 2009, pp. 128-129).
Alighiero Boetti’s concept for his fascinating work, Da uno a dieci (arabo) (From One to Ten (Arabic)), 1980 was that of a children’s counting book. In accordance with the tradition of these books but also with the tautological and doubling nature of so much of his own work, Boetti sought to illustrate the concept of counting and the sequential growth of numbers from one to ten using numbers, letters and fingers. The pattern for the counting book, as for the present work was based on original drawings that Boetti made by tracing around his daughter’s hand as she opened one finger, then two and so on until all the fingers on both hands were displayed. Da uno a dieci (arabo) contain the name of the relevant number spelled out in Arabic numeral in a sequence of coloured squares. In this way the ten panels also chart the proliferation and growth of multiple possibilities as each panel progresses. Visually, taken as a whole, the sequential progression of the ten panels that constitute Da uno a dieci (arabo) show a spectacular burst of colour seemingly blooming from a near monochrome starting point.
Da uno a dieci (arabo) developed from a series of works in which Boetti had deliberately set about countering the notion of the spontaneous gesture in art with work that abides by a set of simple rules and yet through them creates an image illustrative of coloured variety. With its simple imagery of human hands and the logical rule and sequence of proliferation with which it and its ten fingers accords, Boetti sought to create work that expounded the establishment of the harmony between invention and a simple, logical rule or progression. Boetti demonstrates the power of human thought and the infinite amount of potential inherent within keeping faithful to the rule and the already inbuilt structures of the world around us. ‘It is like a numerical series’, Boetti said in an interview. ‘There are two elements: the series and the numbers (which are infinite). That is, there is the one (the series) and the infinite (the numbers). I remember a phrase: “Because the head is a friend to the feet and both of them to the moon and the tides.” I think that if one is to do things well, one must find oneself in that situation: one must have achieved a sort of harmony, a state of grace. It is something one has without knowing it: when you know it, you know longer have it…’ (A. Boetti, quoted in Alighiero e Boetti 1993/1962, exh. cat., MADRE, Naples, 2009, p. 36). In Da uno a dieci (arabo), this connection between the human, the numerical and the infinite potential of the wider cosmos is powerfully illustrated in a joyous, colourful and deceptively simple sequence of paper panels.