Martha Boto

In 1959, Boto and Vardanega moved to Paris, and she began a new phase of her career. In 1960, she participated in the first Bienal of Paris and she began to explore movement in sculpture. She developed her kinetic works during this time, adding a motor, or colored lights, to her sculptural practice, and focusing upon the effects of movement, illumination, and color; of especial interest was the ability to modify, absorb, and reflect light. To this end, she also began experimenting with different industrial materials, including aluminum and stainless steel. In 1961, she showed her works for the first time at the Denise René Gallery, in the group exhibition Art abstrait constructif international.  Art critics of the time described her works in relation to the genre of science fiction, and with the seeming magic of space travel. Her first solo exhibition at Denise René was in 1969.

Boto continued to work, making sculptures and paintings, through the early 2000s. Her works have been included in numerous important exhibitions, including most recently, Real/Virtual, Arte Cinético Argentino de los Años Sesenta, at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Lo[s] Cinetico[s] at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain.

She died in Paris in 2004.

Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Museu de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA

Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy

Recklinghausen Museum, Recklinghausen, Germany

Rembrandt van Rijn Foundation, The Cape, South Africa

Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel

Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection, Los Angeles, CA