Alighiero Boetti: i Colori

Post-war conceptual artist Alighiero Boetti first began creating monochromes featuring cork letters centred on square panels of wood and metal in 1967. He would continue to work on them for the following four years, thus creating 'i Colori', one of his most significant series of works. While the earliest, nonsensical pieces such as 'The Thin Thumb' drew inspiration from English phrasebooks and evoked a poetical yet arbitrary presence, in later pieces, he replaced such words with dates of personal significance, infusing into his work his deep-seated existential concerns.