Sarat Maharaj will lecture on Alighiero e Boetti, as part of the Robert Lehman Lectures on Contemporary Art at Dia Center for the Arts, 548 West 22nd Street, New York City, on Thursday, March 23, 1995. The lecture will begin at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $5.00.

This lecture is organized in conjunction with the exhibition "Worlds Envisioned: Alighiero e Boetti and Frédéric Bruly Bouabré," at Dia's main exhibition facility, 548 West 22nd Street, on view through June 25, 1995. Selected in consultation with the artists, the show highlights the two artists' affinities: both may be described as cosmographers, individuals with an encyclopedic curiosity about the world, and a fascination with the systems, codes and schemata by which such knowledge is recorded, archived, coded, and classified. Maharaj will focus on the work of the Italian artist Alighiero e Boetti.

Sarat Maharaj teaches Art History at Goldsmith's College, University of London. Of Indian descent, Maharaj was born and raised in South Africa. For political reasons, he emigrated to Great Britain where he now lives and works. Maharaj was a contributor to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition "Interrogating Identity," a traveling exhibition organized by the Grey Art Gallery, New York University. He is interested in cross-cultural issues as they emerge in art and artmaking.

Funding for the lecture series has been provided by a generous grant from the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc. Funding for "Worlds Envisioned: Alighiero e Boetti and Frédéric Bruly Bouabré" has been received from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, Washington, D.C. Additional funding was provided by the members of the Dia Art Council, the major annual support group of Dia Center for the Arts, and the Dia Art Circle.

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For additional information or materials contact:
Press Department, Dia Art Foundation, press@diaart.org or 212 293 5518