Le Temple de la Gloire, 1983
GPE-0045
Lithograph and collage
50 x 65 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the recto: “Le Temple de la Gloire” (bottom centre), “Giulio Paolini 1983” (bottom right)
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
50 in Arabic numerals from 1/50 to 50/50
Franco Debenedetti, Turin
Marco Noire Editore, Turin
The print was commissioned from the artist by Franco Debenedetti – CEO of Olivetti at the time – as a personal Christmas gift.
Double-sided white card stock folder, closed format 50 x 65 cm; cover with the name of the author in black.
The print reproduces a golden pillow, on which is placed a card featuring a phrase from the second act of the ballet Le Temple de la Gloire (1745) by Jean-Philippe Rameau: “Le temple s’ouvre / La Gloire se découvre. / L’objet de mon ardeur y sera couronné; / Suivez – moi” (The temple opens, / And Glory is revealed. / The object of my passion shall be crowned there; Follow me).
The elegant pillow proposes, in the manner of an "offer", the phrase that in Paolini's vision announces the never-ending quest for beauty, the dimension of the sublime symbolized by the colour gold. “Gold recalls the mythical object, it inscribes the sublime; it is the elementary indication of the homage to the unfathomable that tends towards the absolute”,1 says the artist.
The print is part of the group of works with the same title that was developed from 1983, both three-dimensional (cf. GPO-0490), and on paper (GPC-0589, GPC-0590, GPC-0642, GPC-0643, GPC-0644).
1 G. Paolini interviewed by C. Grenier, in Flash Art 3 (Milan, French edition), Spring, 1984, p. 40.
Title from the opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Le Temple de la Gloire, 1745 and quotation from the same source, Act II, Scene 2, last lines.
| 1992 | Bonn, Bonner Kunstverein, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques. Das graphische Werk 1967-1992, 24 February - 29 March (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 47). |
| 1993 | Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques. Das druckgraphische Werk 1967-1992, 16 January - 7 March (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 47). |
| 1995 | Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian / Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques. Múltiplos e Obra Gráfica 1969-1995, 16 March - 28 May, not repr. in the exhibition brochure (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 47). |
| 1996 | Apolda, Kunsthaus Apolda Avantgarde, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques, 27 September - 27 October (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 47). |
| 1997 | Göppingen, Kunsthalle, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques. Das graphische Druckwerk 1967-1995, 9 March - 13 April (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 47). |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 47, col. repr. (artist’s proof, with torn card stock element). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 490 p. 505, not repr. |
| • | Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), col. repr. n. pag. (artist’s proof, untorn card stock element). |
