Oggi diciannovesimo giorno ottavo mese dell'anno millenove100ottantotto (Today the Nineteenth Day of the Eighth Month of the Year OneThousandNine100Eighty-Eight)
1988
Alighiero Boetti
Artist, Italian, 1940 - 1994
Boetti’s most iconic works are the embroideries he began to produce in Afghanistan in 1971 and subsequently in Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. He worked with local craftspeople, mostly women, to produce three distinct types of embroideries: Arazzi (word square tapestries), Mappi (maps), and Tutti (representations of “everything”). Untitled is an example of the Arazzi style and is comprised of 25 rows. Each row consists of 25 individual blocks that feature a single letter of either Italian lettering or the Arabic script of Farsi, the spoken language of the work’s embroiderers, who were then living in exile in Peshawar. Evoking Boetti’s deep interest in Afghan culture and his interrogation of artistic identity, the work is a true collaboration between the artist and his gifted collaborators. Boetti determined the format of the embroidery as well as the layout of the letters, which contain messages in Italian and English. The embroiderers selected the color scheme and the four Farsi texts that are stitched in yellow and black, which include their names, the equine game of buzkashi (the national sport of Afghanistan, “land of the horse-riders”), and Afghan Independence Day.
Artwork overview
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Medium
cotton embroidery (Bokhara couching) on cotton/linen fabric
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 112.5 × 104 cm (44 5/16 × 40 15/16 in.)
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Accession Number
2020.103.1
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The artist;[1] acquired 1988 by private collection, Milan; (Ben Brown Fine Arts, London and Hong Kong); purchased 2020 by NGA.
[1] Embroidered by Afghan women artisans in Peshawar, Pakistan, after a design by Boetti.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
-1
Alighiero Boetti, Embroideries Including Mappas, Tuttos and a Rug, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, 2019
Bibliography
2019
Guadagnini, Walter. Fontana e Milano: continuità di una storia. Milan, 2019: 231, repro.
Inscriptions
center right, Farsi text woven horizontally in black. (Translation: in Afghanistan the opening day of Independence Day celebrations); center left, Farsi text woven horizontally in black. (Translation: always with the ancient equestrian game of Buzkashi) The two horizontal texts read continuously right to left.
upper center, Farsi text woven vertically in yellow. (Translation from top to bottom: It appeared more beautiful. Calligraphy by Javid); lower center, Farsi text woven vertically in yellow. (Translation from top to bottom: embroidery/needlepoint Alighiero Boetti)
lower left reverse (currently, due to border being folded over stretcher; previously, lower right): by AFGHAN PEOPLE; lower right reverse (currently, due to border being folded over stretcher; previously, lower left): PESHAWAR 88