Martha Boto
Martha Boto (27 December 1925 – 13 October 2004) was an Argentine artist. 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.
Also recorded as Marta S. Boto · Marta Segunda Boto · Martha Segunda Boto
Martha Boto
- Name
- Martha Boto
- Born
- 27 December 1925
- Birthplace
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Died
- 13 October 2004
- Place of death
- Paris, France
- Education
- Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes
- Field
- Sculpture
- Movement
- Kinetic art
- Spouse
- Gregorio Vardanega
- Nationality
- Argentina
- Occupation
- artist · installation artist · sculptor
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Documentary summary
Martha Boto (27 December 1925 – 13 October 2004) was an Argentine artist. 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.
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wikidata · Q3295144 · wikipedia · Martha Boto
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Martha Boto • Born — 27 December 1925 • Birthplace — Buenos Aires, Argentina • Died — 13 October 2004 • Place of death — Paris, France • Education — Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes • Field — Sculpture • Movement — Kinetic art • Spouse — Gregorio Vardanega
Life
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. She moved to Paris in 1959 with her husband and collaborator Gregorio Vardanega, where she lived until her death in 2004.
Work
Work
Boto's earliest work was primarily geometric abstractions. 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". She was among the first artists in Buenos Aires to use movement as a component in her sculptures. In 1957, she started the group Artistas No Figurativos de la Argentina alongside Gregorio Vardanega. 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. After Boto moved to Paris, Denise René promoted her work. 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". 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. 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.
Representative Artworks
Representative Artworks
• Optical Structure, 1962, plexiglass, 90 x 45 x 45 cm. • Mouvements chromocinétiques, 1971. MNBA collection, Buenos Aires.
Personal exhibitions
Personal exhibitions
• 2004 - Moving Parts: Forms of the Kinetic, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland; Kunsthaus, Gras, Austria.
Collective exhibitions
Collective exhibitions
• 1964/65 - Kunsthalle, Museum of Bern, Switzerland. • 2015 - Un Tournant - A turning point: Antonio Asis, Martha Boto, Horacio García Rossi, Hugo De Marziani, Georgio Vardanega, Sicardi Gallery. Houston, Texas, United States. • 2021 - Women in Abstraction, Centre Pompidou.
Identity
Identity
Martha Boto is recorded as artist, installation artist and sculptor.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1925
Martha Boto born at Buenos Aires.
2004
Martha Boto died at Paris.
Literature
Literature
Literature
Boto, Martha, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011
Scholarly footprint
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Martha Boto - Sicardi Gallery.
- 2.New Tendencies: Art at the Threshold of the Information Revolution (1961 - 1978).
- 3.Real Virtual, arte cinético argentino en los años sesenta. 978-987-1428-13-7.
- 4.Contemporary Artists.
- 5.Contemporary artists.
- 6.Palabra de artista. Textos sobre arte argentino, 1961 - 1981.
- 7.Argentina en el mundo. Artes visuales 2.
- 8.Arte Cinético Latinoamericano. Martha Boto.
- 9.Real/Virtual : arte cinético argentino en los años sesenta. 9789871428137.
- 10.ART&ART COLLECTION.
- 11.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. 9781606065389.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Sculpture
6,174 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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- Martín ChirinoArtist
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