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Lot Essay
This work is registered in the Archivio Alighiero Boetti, Rome, under the number 3152 and is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity.
"All that is important is to know the rule: anyone who does not know it, will never recognize the prevailing order in things." (Alighiero Boetti, quoted in exh. cat. Alighiero Boetti. Mettere il Mondo al Mondo, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1998, p. 311).
This rare postal work by Boetti, one of the most important to appear on the market in recent times, clearly illustrates the artist's conception of order and disorder, the importance self-established rules have in his aesthetic, and his fascination with numbers and progressions.
Boetti's works are often based on the creation of games with specific rules. The present work consists of eight different groups of envelopes and their respective contents, to be sent to the same address. Only one letter with a single stamp belongs to the first group; the second group is formed by four letters with four stamps each and so on up to sixty-four envelopes with sixty-four stamps for the eighth. The sheets of paper Boetti put into the envelopes also form eight groups of different subjects, each sheet carrying a marking of its precise position in the arrangement Boetti had in mind.
As in many other of Boetti's works, the number of vertical and horizontal elements coincide. According to the artist, art is the process of establishing order and this explains why the square has a central position in his vision: in addition to the many magical and symbolical meanings that it has, the square is a principle of order as a geometrical and mathematical figure.
Following the rules Boetti himself established, the stamps and the images proliferate until they take possession of all the available space; The artist obtains at the same time a linguistic game (a reflection on the tools we use to communicate) as well as a purely visual result.
The conception of the artist's role, too, is under scrutiny. One of the groups of letters consists of a number of copies of some cartoons of avant-garde artists and modern painting from Boetti's collection. He was fascinated by how idioms and clichés are made and the astute visual tools used by cartoonists. Besides, the artist accepts the co-operation of other people to create the work, thus scratching at the conception of the genius' individuality. As he was assisted in the embroideries by artisans from the Afghani people, here the postal service takes an involuntary part in the development of his idea.
Stamps, finally, are used both for their visual impact and their meaning: they are a license for things to travel and a memory of the distance covered. The time of the journey, the feeling of an historical distance is here concentrated into an object.
"All that is important is to know the rule: anyone who does not know it, will never recognize the prevailing order in things." (Alighiero Boetti, quoted in exh. cat. Alighiero Boetti. Mettere il Mondo al Mondo, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1998, p. 311).
This rare postal work by Boetti, one of the most important to appear on the market in recent times, clearly illustrates the artist's conception of order and disorder, the importance self-established rules have in his aesthetic, and his fascination with numbers and progressions.
Boetti's works are often based on the creation of games with specific rules. The present work consists of eight different groups of envelopes and their respective contents, to be sent to the same address. Only one letter with a single stamp belongs to the first group; the second group is formed by four letters with four stamps each and so on up to sixty-four envelopes with sixty-four stamps for the eighth. The sheets of paper Boetti put into the envelopes also form eight groups of different subjects, each sheet carrying a marking of its precise position in the arrangement Boetti had in mind.
As in many other of Boetti's works, the number of vertical and horizontal elements coincide. According to the artist, art is the process of establishing order and this explains why the square has a central position in his vision: in addition to the many magical and symbolical meanings that it has, the square is a principle of order as a geometrical and mathematical figure.
Following the rules Boetti himself established, the stamps and the images proliferate until they take possession of all the available space; The artist obtains at the same time a linguistic game (a reflection on the tools we use to communicate) as well as a purely visual result.
The conception of the artist's role, too, is under scrutiny. One of the groups of letters consists of a number of copies of some cartoons of avant-garde artists and modern painting from Boetti's collection. He was fascinated by how idioms and clichés are made and the astute visual tools used by cartoonists. Besides, the artist accepts the co-operation of other people to create the work, thus scratching at the conception of the genius' individuality. As he was assisted in the embroideries by artisans from the Afghani people, here the postal service takes an involuntary part in the development of his idea.
Stamps, finally, are used both for their visual impact and their meaning: they are a license for things to travel and a memory of the distance covered. The time of the journey, the feeling of an historical distance is here concentrated into an object.