Martha Boto

biography

Martha Boto (Buenos Aires, 1925 – Paris, 2004) is considered part of the movement of Argentine kinetic artists of the 1960s. In 1956, together with Gregorio Vardánega, she founded the Non-Figurative Artists group of Argentina, and then, in 1959, she moved with this company to Paris. Boto focused her work on the research on the optical variations of light and color, as well as the organization of elements in rigorous structures. Her kinetic and optical works were oriented to the juxtaposition of static or mobile reliefs, experimenting with chance, play and movement. These aesthetic researches led her to explore the potential of materials that could modify, absorb, and reflect light, such as aluminum, stainless steel, mirror, and plexiglass.

Using these same materials, she also produced non-mobile assemblies focused on the distorted reflection of light: the projections and light reflections of several colors that act, in certain artworks, on transparent materials.

Polyvision Sìderale, an artwork made in 1968, consists of a square wooden structure that contains aluminum and an incorporated motor inside that mobilizes small plastic spheres that, through incessant movement, reflect several shades. The materials used in the work play a fundamental role both in the distortion of the space and in the transformation of the appearance of each element, implanting the indefinite depth that the artist sought.

Martha Boto (1925, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 2004, Paris, France) was a member of the Asociación Arte Nuevo (New Art Association) and a member of the group called Artistas No Figurativos Argentinos (Non-Figurative Argentinian Artists). In 1957 she settled in Paris where she developed her artistic career along with her husband, artist Gregorio Vardánega. She has participated in many exhibitions, such as Constructed Dialogues: Concrete, Geometric, and Kinetic Art from the Latin American Art Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (2012); Real/Virtual, Arte Cinético Argentino de Los años sesenta, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2012); North Looks South: Building the Latin American Art Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2009); Lo(s) cinético(s), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, España (2007); Light and Shadow, Galerie Von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland, (2006); Extreme Abstraction, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (2005); Brought to Light: Recent Acquisitions in Latin American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (2005); Escultura-Objeto – Relecturas en la Colección del MAMBA, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005); Moving Parts. Forms of the Kinetic, Museum Tinguely, Basilea, Switzerland (2004); Geometrías Heterodoxas, MAMBA, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina (2003); The Eye’s Pop: Op Art, Albright-Knox Galleru, Buffalo, New York (1998); Galerie Argentine, Paris, Francia (1996); In the Mind’s Eye; Systemic and Optic Art from the Permanent Collection, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A (1984); Kinetic and Optic Painting and Sculpture, Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA (1978); centre d’Action Culturelle les Gémeaux, París, France (1976); Galería Denise René, París, Francia (1969); Contemporary Art-Acquisitions 1966-1969, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (1969); Maison des Beaux-Arts, C.R.O.U.S., Paris, France (1964); Estimulo de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1957), among others.