Spotty to boot

Question

Hi,
I didnt post anything for months to the forum. Now I have a question about a phrase:

the exhibition, spotty to boot, became appropriate and sincere

Spotty would be refered to spot but 'to boot', ¿in addition; also? Well, I have no idea about what is the meaning of this idiom.
Any ideas?

Thanks,
Castorp

Philip · Accepted Answer

I, myself, would need more context in order to try to help you out.  The expression "to boot" means something like "in addition".

Yankee · Answer

In AmE the word 'spotty' means 'bad in some parts' or 'not consistently good'. You're right -- the phrase 'to boot' means 'in addition/also'.

Did the previous sentence(s) mention some other negative aspects of the exhibition? Without further context, your sentence doesn't make much sense. I can only assume that other negative qualities of the exhibition had already been mentioned and that the writer added one more negative quality here (i.e. 'spotty').

Castorp · Answer

Excuse me, I couldn't connect to Internet until today.
The previous and following paragraphs no mention clearly negative qualities:
...is a four-part exhibition of artists that deploy strategies of collage, sculptural assemblage, sound and the Internet. The first two series reinvent Arte Povera, the Surrealist, Fluxus and the Dadaist ideas and concepts of the ready made, found object, fantasy, space, process, and human behavior. The final additions engage the social and the transformative aspects of recent audio and web technology. Owing much to their forebears —Marcel Duchamp, Mimmo Rotella, Robert Rauschenberg, Nam June Paik, George Maciunas, Laurie Anderson, among others— the exhibiting artists who are by no means prodigal offsprings, embrace plurality and difference in a new reality that in and of itself needs definition. It is a notable social and cultural shift, a phenomenon that denotes generational concerns, cycle, impetus and ideological transformation. Such shift is a psychic twist with a global seismic effect on the collective consciousness.
Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn and Los Angeles-based Mark Bradford exemplify “the formal and ideological power of juxtaposing found images to create everything from social and political commentaries to Surrealist fantasies and personal confessions.”
After climbing up the stairwells and reaching the top floor, an extraordinary sense of openness and monumentality began to set in, and the exhibition, spotty to boot, became appropriate and sincere. Sincerity is the new irony of the 21st century.
So maybe it just mean additionally.
Thanks!

Feebs11 · Answer

The extract from the review you have given talks about the background to the exhibitions. "spotty to boot" is more likely to refer to the quality of the actual exhibits and/or the lack of cohesion within the exhibition [some things are given more emphasis and exhibits than others], or even the way in which the exhibition is shown across several floors of the building.

Spotty to boot

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