Un tournant | A turning point
Antonio Asis, Martha Boto, Hugo De Marziani, Horacio Garcia Rossi, Gregorio Vardanega
July 14 - August 29, 2015
Martha Boto and Gregorio Vardanega studio, Paris.
Martha Boto, Dynamo, 1969. Metal, plastic, electric motor, 17 1/2 in. x 16 1/2 in. x 9 in.
Martha Boto, Deplacements Optiques, 1968. Metal, Plexiglas, electric motor, 18 7/8 in. x 14 15/16 in. x 8 1/2 in.
MARTHA BOTO
[1925 - 2004, Argentina / France]
“I have always been fascinated by the laws of harmony and equilibrium which govern the cosmos through interrelations of light and movement, space, time, and color.”
Born in Buenos Aires, Martha Boto was drawn to art as a young child, and her family supported her studies. Between the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s, she joined the first abstract art movements in Buenos Aires, including the Asociación Arte Nuevo. In 1944, she attended the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes “Ernesto de la Cárcova,” where she took classes in drawing and painting.
In the 1950s, Boto showed her work at several Buenos Aires galleries, including Van Riel and Galatea y H. She began to create structures and transparent mobiles in Plexiglas, with colored water, perhaps in dialogue with works being made around the same time by Gyula Kosice. In 1956, she (along with Gregorio Vardanega), co-founded the group Artistas No Figurativos de la Argentina.
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.
2022
Light & Darkness, Power Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, Australia
Tercer ojo, Colección Costantini en Malba, Transformar el dispositivo, Museo de Arte Latinoamerica de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Argentina
2020
Color into Light, Connecting Currents: Contemporary Art at the Fine Arts Museum Houston in the inaugural installation of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, (MFAH), TX, USA
2017
An Open Mind, Maddox Arts, Mayfair, London, UK
Kinesthesia: Latin American Kinetic Art, 1954–1969, Palm Springs Art Museum, CA, USA
2016
Let's move, Patinoire Royale, Brussels, Belgium
2015
Un tournant | A turning point: Antonio Asis, Martha Boto, Horacio García Rossi, Hugo De Marziani, Gregorio Vardanega, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
60 ans de Mouvement, 1ères Générations, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France
2013
Sculptrices, Villa Datris, Isle-sur-Sorgue, France
Les Sud américains, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France
Hommage à Denise René, Espace Expression, Miami, FL, USA
2012
Constructed Dialogues: Concrete, Geometric, and Kinetic Art from the Latin American Art Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA
Real/Virtual, Arte Cinético Argentino de los Años Sesenta, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Réflexion forme lumière, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France
2009
North Looks South: Building the Latin American Art Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA
2007
Lo[s] Cinetico[s], Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
2006
Contact: Le cyber-cosmos de Boto et Vardanega, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Light and Shadow, Galerie von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland
Formal Exchange, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA and Latin America
2005
Extreme Abstraction, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
Brought to Light: Recent Acquisitions in Latin American Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA
Escultura - Objeto - Relecturas en la Colección del Museo de Arte Moderno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
2004
Moving Parts: Forms of the Kinetic, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland; Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria
2003
Geometrías Heterodoxas, Museo de Arte Moderno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
1998
The Eye's Pop: Op Art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
1997
Saint-Lambert Post Office, Paris, France
1996
Galerie Argentine, Paris, France
1993
Espace Bateau Lavoir, Paris, France
1984
In the Mind's Eye: Systemic and Optic Art from the Permanent Collection, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
1978
Kinetic and Optic Painting and Sculpture from the Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
1976
Centre d’Action Culturelle Les Gémeaux, Paris, France
1972
Kinetic & Optic Painting & Sculpture in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
1969
Galerie Denise René, Paris, France
Contemporary Art Acquisitions 1966-1969, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
1967
Light Motion Space, Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA; The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
1964
Maison des Beaux-Arts, C.R.O.U.S., Paris, France
1958
Galería H, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1957
Estímulo de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1956
Galería Galatea, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1954
Galería Krayd, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1952
Galería Van Riel, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
Centro de Artes Visuales del Instituto Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia
Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection (LACMA), CA, USA
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, France
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Latinoamericano, La Plata, Argentina
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
For the first time, Tate Modern tells the intertwined stories of photography and abstract art
Kelly Klaasmeyer covers Sicardi Gallery's exhibition of Martha Boto and Gregorio Vardanega. The exhibition is Boto's first ever in the United States and Vardanaga's second.
Ten works are added to the permanent collection, including a large, kinetic, mirrored sculpture by the Argentine artist Martha Boto recently featured in Dan Cameron’s Pacific Standard Time exhibition Kinesthesia at the Palm Springs Art Museum (from Sicardi Gallery Houston).
