“Writing with the Left Hand is Drawing”: Alighiero Boetti, 1969–70

In the article I focus on "Bollini" ("Stickers") and "Cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione", two groups of drawings made by the Arte Povera artist Alighiero Boetti at the turn of the 1960s. By framing the works within the artist's oeuvre and the international artistic context, as much as examining the process of their execution, the exhibition history and the critical reception, I place these drawings among the major examples of the reassessment of traditional genres and practices by the avant-garde artists of the 1960s and 1970s. A special attention is paid to the relationship between Boetti and the American artist Sol LeWitt. As is well known, the two artists met in 1970 and stayed in touch since then. A comparison of their respective works on paper sheds light on the importance of drawing in the work of conceptual as well as arte povera artists. By focusing on this medium, the article sheds light on issues of re-mediation which stand at the core of the reception of the legacy of conceptual art, and anticipates the growing interest in the drawing practice of the artists of the 1960s and 1970s, which has especially increased in the last few years.