Rosso Palermo, 1967
Industrial paint on castboard and cork
65 x 68 cm
Collection Frac des Pays de la Loire. Long-term loan to the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

Oro Longchamp, c1968
Industrial paint on castboard and cork
70 x 70 cm
Le Frac des Pays de la Loire. Long-term loan to the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

Verde Ascot 1 288 6631, c1968
Cast iron, sprayed industrial paint
70 x 70 cm
Private collection

Boetti made these monochrome paintings in Turin, Italy, a car-conscious city that was home to Fiat's headquarters. For his deadpan subversions of the monochrome, Boetti sprayed these paints on metal or masonite supports, recording the numbers and fanciful names of the colours in cork letters. Different thematic groups emerged as Boetti combined their names with other names, race track names for instance (Oro Longchamp and Verde Ascot) or distant place names (Rosso Palermo and Beige Sahara).