Martha Boto

Martha Boto
Martha Boto (1995)
Born(1925-12-27)December 27, 1925
Buenos Aires, Argentina
DiedOctober 13, 2004(2004-10-13) (aged 78)
Paris, France
Known forSculpture
MovementKinetic art
SpouseGregorio Vardanega

Martha Boto (27 December 1925 – 13 October 2004) was an Argentine artist.[1] Boto was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was co-founder of the Group of Non-Figurative Artists of Argentina. She is considered to be a pioneer of kinetic and programmed art.[2]

Life

Coming from a family of artists, where they always supported her in her vocation. She studied drawing and painting at Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes in 1944, and graduated in 1950.[3]

She moved to Paris in 1959 with her husband and collaborator Gregorio Vardanega, where she lived until her death in 2004.[1]

Work

Boto's earliest work was primarily geometric abstractions.[4] During the 50s she had her first concerns regarding space, which ended in creations of structures where she made use of plexiglass with colored water. By 1956, she joined the Concrete art group "Arte Nuevo".[3]

She was among the first artists in Buenos Aires to use movement as a component in her sculptures.[1] In 1957, she started the group Artistas No Figurativos de la Argentina alongside Gregorio Vardanega.[3]

In 1959 she moved to Paris and a year later she took part in the I Biennale de Paris where her career as a kinetic artist took off, her work was centered on the concepts of movement, light and color.[5]

After Boto moved to Paris, Denise René promoted her work.[4] Boto began to incorporate more industrial materials, such as electric motors, into her sculptures at this time.

She was known for her "investigations led on the principle of repetition in the world of reflection".[6] Boto looked for an art capable of awakening different emotions, psychological reactions of joy and tension, an art that could become a medicine for the spirit.[7]

Boto's work is included in international collections world wide, which includes the collection of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida. Her work is on view to the audience as of 2024.[8]

Representative Artworks

  • Optical Structure, 1962, plexiglass, 90 x 45 x 45 cm.[9]
  • Mouvements chromocinétiques, 1971. MNBA collection, Buenos Aires.[10]

Personal exhibitions

  • 2004 - Moving Parts: Forms of the Kinetic, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland; Kunsthaus, Gras, Austria.[11]

Collective exhibitions

Bibliography

  • Herrera, M.J. Real Virtual, arte cinético argentino en los años sesenta. (pág. 211). 1era edición. Buenos Aires. Amigos del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (2012).
  • Rivenc, R. and Reinhard, B. (2016). Keep it Moving? Conserving Kinetic Art. Los Angeles. Getty Publications.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Martha Boto - Peggy Guggenheim Collection".
  2. ^ Medosch, Armin (10 June 2016). New Tendencies: Art at the Threshold of the Information Revolution (1961 - 1978). MIT Press. ISBN 9780262034166 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ a b c "Martha Boto - Sicardi Gallery".
  4. ^ a b "Martha Boto".
  5. ^ Real/Virtual : arte cinético argentino en los años sesenta. Herrera, María José, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Argentina). [Buenos Aires, Argentina]. 2012. ISBN 9789871428137. OCLC 815824078.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ^ Contemporary artists. Naylor, Colin. (3rd ed.). Chicago: St. James Press. 1989. ISBN 0912289961. OCLC 20140788.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^ Palabra de artista : textos sobre arte argentino, 1961-1981. Amigo Cerisola, Roberto., Dolinko, Silvia, 1970-, Rossi, Cristina. Buenos Aires: Fondo Nacional de las Artes. 2010. ISBN 9789876410106. OCLC 713560782.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ^ "Martha Boto – MIA Art Collection". Retrieved 2024-03-04.
  9. ^ a b Argentina en el mundo. Artes visuales 2. Buenos Aires: Centro de Artes Visuales del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella. 1966.
  10. ^ "Latin American Kinetic Art. Martha Boto". Arte Cinético Latinoamericano. 28 May 2013. Archived from the original on 23 April 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  11. ^ a b "ART&ART COLLECTION". Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  12. ^ Women in abstraction. London : New York, New York: Thames & Hudson Ltd. ; Thames & Hudson Inc. 2021. p. 170. ISBN 978-0500094372.
  13. ^ Keep it moving? : conserving kinetic art : proceedings from the meeting organized by the Getty Conservation Institute, the ICOM-CC Modern Materials and Contemporary Art Working Group, and Museo del Novecento, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy, June 30-July 2, 2016. Rivenc, Rachel, Bek, Reinhard, Getty Conservation Institute, ICOM Committee for Conservation. Working Group Modern Materials and Contemporary Art, Museo del Novecento (Milan, Italy), Palazzo reale di Milano (First ed.). Los Angeles, California. 2018-04-10. ISBN 9781606065389. OCLC 994263283.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)