Salman Alighiero Boetti

Tornabuoni Arte presents Salman’s private collection – the result of gifts from his brotherly friend Boetti – consisting of top-quality works that bear witness to the artist’s affection for his closest collaborator and friend.

Besides, this show is the first chance to see all these works exhibited together, even though some of them have already been presented in international museums. This entre collection of majestic pieces is featured by Tornabuoni Arte together with a remarkable selection of photographs, depicting Salman Ali during private moments and travels next to Boetti. This photographic documentation – including both well-known and unpublished pictures or photos taken for example by Giorgio Colombo – allow us to describe in detail the extraordinary story of Alighiero Boetti’s closest man and discover his relationship with the artist.

In 1971, Salman Ali met Boetti in Kabul where the artist had opened the famous One Hotel. It was there that Salman found quickly a job. In 1973, Boetti offered Salman Ali to follow him in Rome. Since this moment, he has constantly lived with the Italian artist and his family, becoming slowly a family member rather than a simple assistant. A witness of the entre private and professional life of the Turin-born artist, Salman Ali is still today inextricably linked to the Boetti’s family and the whole ‘Boetti’s world’.