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This exhibition, a joint project between the late Italian
artist Alighiero e Boetti and Frédéric Bruly Bouabré,
a seventy-year-old artist from the Ivory Coast, was comprised of
works by each of the artists. The works borrowed from Boetti cover
a span of the past twenty years, and were primarily embroidered
work (woven in Afghanistan to Boetti's designs) including maps,
the "1000 longest rivers," and small works. Also included
were new work produced by Boetti in Abidjan shortly before
his recent untimely death. Bruly Bouabré's work takes the
form of small drawings on 4" x 8" cards, grouped into
sets of 50 to 100 on such topics as scarification, the alphabet,
cosmologies, etc. Books and manuscripts by the artists were
on view as well.
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| Checklist of Works |
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Alighiero e Boetti
1. Iter-vallo, 1969. Iron and tissue paper, 37 x 37 inches.
Collection Agata Boetti, Paris.
2a. I mille fiumi più lunghi del mondo ( The
Thousand Longest Rivers in the World), 1977-85. Embroidery
on canvas, 99 x 211 inches. Collection The Museum of Modern Art,
New York, Gift of Ronald S. Lauder and Purchase, 1993.
2b. I mille fiumi più lunghi del mondo, 1977. Book,
8 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches. Edition no. 373/500.
3. Faccine colorate (Colored Faces), 1979. Felt-tipped
pen on printed paper on canvas, six panels, each 39 1/2 x 27 1/2
inches. Archivio Alighiero Boetti, Rome.
4. Mettere il mondo al mondo (Putting the World into
the World), 1972/73. Ballpoint on paper on canvas, 2 panels,
each 59 x 98 1/2 inches. Courtesy Gian Enzo Sperone, Rome.
5. Numeri da uno a dieci (Numbers from One to Ten),
1980. Watercolor on paper, ten panels, each 11 3/4 x 15 3/4
inches. Collection Caterina Boetti, Rome.
6. Ordine e disordine (Order and Disorder), English
version, 1986. Embroidery on canvas, 199 pieces, each 9 1/2
x 9 1/2 inches. Courtesy Gallery Eric Franck, Geneva.
7. Anno 1990 (The Year 1990), 1990. Pencil on paper
on canvas, twelve panels, each 39 1/4 x 39 1/4 inches. Collection
Caterina Boetti, Rome.
8. Mappa (Map), 1971/89. Embroidery on canvas, 118
x 236 1/4 inches. Collection Caterina Boetti, Rome.
9. Mappa (Map), 1993-94. Embroidery on canvas, 118
x 236 1/4 inches. Collection Caterina Boetti, Rome.
10. Tutto (Everything), 1991-92. Embroidery on canvas,
83 3/4 x 163 3/4 inches. Collection Anne-Marie Sauzeau, Rome.
11. Regno Animale (Animal Kingdom), 1977. Pencil
on paper, 59 x 39 1/4 inches. Collection Anne-Marie Sauzeau,
Rome.
12. Regno Musicale (Musical Kingdom), 1978. Pencil on paper, 59
x 39 1/4 inches. Collection Anne-Marie Sauzeau, Rome.
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré
13. Etoiles de mes rêves (Stars from My Dreams)
, 1989. 8 panels, each 3 3/4 x 6 inches.
14. Le Musée du visage africain (Scarifications
(The Museum of the African Face [Scarifications]),
second version, 1991-92. 112 panels, each 3 3/4 x 6 inches or
6 x 3 3/4 inches.
15. Connaissance du monde (Knowledge of the World),
1982-94. 195 panels, each 3 3/4 x 6 inches or 6 x 3 3/4 inches.
16. Les Chiffres de la comptabilité (Numbers
for Accounting), 1989-90. 9 panels, each 3 3/4 x 6 inches.
17. Relevés des signes observés sur noix de cola
(Readings from Signs Observed on Cola Nuts), 1981-94.
55 panels, each 3 3/4 x 6 inches.
18. Relevés des signes observés sur oranges
(Readings from Signs Observed on Oranges), 1988. 36 panels,
each 6 x 3 3/4 inches.
19. Alphabet Bété (Bété
Alphabet), 1990-91. 449 panels, each 3 3/4 x 6 inches or
6 x 3 3/4 inches.
20. Zacrô Zêpê, 1990. 51 panels, each
12 1/2 x 6 1/2 or 6 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches.
21. Semence de la vie (Seed of Life), 1977. 23 panels,
each 12 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches or 8 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches.
22. Poids Akan à peser l'or (Akan Weights for Weighing
Gold), 1989-90. 36 panels, each 3 3/4 x 6 inches or 6 x
3 3/4inches.
All works by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré from
the Contemporary African Art Collection, Jean Pigozzi Collection.
All works ballpoint pen and colored pencil on cardboard.
23. Books by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré. Collection
of the artist.
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| Selected Bibliography |
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Alighiero e Boetti
Alighiero e Boetti. (Exhibition catalogue). Basel/Stuttgart/Vienna:
Wiese Verlag, 1992. Essays by Annelie Pohlen, Achille Bonito Oliva,
et al.
Alighierio e Boetti, De Bouche à Oreille. (Exhibition catalogue).
Grenoble: Magasin-Centre National d'Art Contemporain, 1993. Essays
by Adelina von Fürstenberg, Giovan Battista Salerno, Angela
Vettese.
Origin and Destination. (Exhibition catalogue). Brussels: Palais
des Beaux-Arts, 1994. Essays by Marco Colapietro and Giovan Battista
Salerno.
Parkett 24 (June 1990). Essays by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Alighiero
e Boetti, Jean Pierre Bordaz, Rainer Crone and David Moos, Friedemann
Malsch, and Giovan Battista Salerno.
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré. (Exhibition catalogue).
Heidelberg: Edition Braus and Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, Kunsthalle
Bern, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, and Ludwig Forum für
internationale Kunst, Aachen, 1993-94.
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| Biography |
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Alighiero e Boetti was born in Turin in December, 1940, and died
in Rome in April, 1994. He exhibited widely in Italy and beyond
from the late sixties and was the subject of a retrospective in
1992 that traveled to Bonn and Münster, Germany, and Lucerne,
Switzerland. His works can be found in major museums and galleries
throught the world.
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré was born in Zéprégühe,
near Dalou, in the Ivory Coast in 1921. After undergoing a transforming
vision in March 1948, he first invented an alphabet then began
writing books on diverse subjects mostly in the form of bilingual
French/Bété texts. In the late seventies, he began
to work as an artist, and since the late eighties, has exhibited
his drawings in Europe, Africa, and Japan. This is the first exhibition
of his works in North America. He lives and works in Abidjan.
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| Funding |
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Major funding for this exhibition has been received from the Lannan
Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal
agency, Washington, D.C. Additional funding was provided by the
members of the Dia Art Council, the major annual support group
of Dia Center for the Arts, and the Dia Art Circle.
The initial proposal for this exhibition was made by André
Magnin. The exhibition was cocurated by Lynne Cooke, Dia Center
for the Arts, and André Magnin, independent curator based
in Paris and curator of the C.A.A.C., Geneva.
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