43 x 41 cm
Private collection, courtesy Fondazione Marconi, Milan
32 x 26 cm
Lorenzo and Marilena Bonomo Collection
34 x 23.3 cm
Collection of the artist
36 x 19 cm
Collection of the artist
Two parts 40.3 x 53.1 cm each, overall dimensions 40.3 x 108.2 cm
Private collection, Milan
33.5 x 50 cm
Collection of the artist
33.5 x 25.5 cm
Collection of the artist
Two parts 42 x 55 cm each, overall dimensions 42 x 112 cm
Collection of the artist
65 x 47 cm
Private collection, Turin
55.7 x 44 cm
Private collection
Present whereabouts unknown
65 x 50 cm
Private collection, St. Gallen (Switzerland)
14.9.84 (a J. C.), 1984
GPE-0047
14.9.84 (To J.C.)
Lithograph on white paper and on tracing paper
44 x 61.5 cm
Signed on the recto of the lithograph on white paper, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the recto of the lithograph on white paper, bottom left
100 in Arabic numerals from 1/100 to 100/100
Museumsverein Mönchengladbach, Mönchengladbach
The print is part of the portfolio Hommage à Cladders, promoted by the Museumsverein Mönchengladbach on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of Johannes Cladders, director of the Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach from 1967 to 1985. The portfolio also constitutes the annual print edition (”Jahresgabe”) for 1984, produced by the Museumsverein to support its activity. The portfolio includes works by eighteen international international artists, who had been the protagonists of a solo exhibition at the Städtisches Museum: Lothar Baumgarten, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, Daniel Buren, Hanne Darboven, Braco Dimitrijevič, Robert Filiou, Gotthard Graubner, Hans Hollein, Jannis Kounellis, Wolfgang Laib, Richard Long, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Arnulf Rainer, Gerhard Richter, Reiner Ruthenbeck, and Jan J. Schoonhoven. The solo show of Paolini's work took place from 3 March to 11 April 1977.
The print consists of two sheets of the same size printed in lithograph and overlapping one another. The sheet of blank paper reproduces the photograph of an open hand, associated with several torn fragments of a reproduction of the sky, as if it were trying to hold on to them. The sheet of tracing paper features a life-size reproduction of the author's hands, inscribed in a rectangle: the left hand offsets the photographic hand, in a similar gesture, while the right hand is busy drawing. In the central area, in the area corresponding to the fragments of the sky in the lithograph beneath, the numbers 1, 4, 9, 8, 4, in autograph calligraphy, recall the date referred to in the title, 14 September 1984, the opening day of a group exhibition organized by the Städtisches Museum of Mönchengladbach in tribute to its founder and director Johannes Cladders (recalled by the initials “J. C.”), on the occasion of his sixtieth anniversary.
The hand that draws and the hand that tries to stop the disaggregation of the elements disarranged among themselves, in extreme synthesis, represent the challenge that the author renews each time from scratch when faced with the blank sheet or the primed canvas. The search for a point of equilibrium, in which all the parts are arranged in a complete image – the sky alludes to an ideal dimension – is the itinerary that the author cannot forgo, even though he is aware of that arrival is unlikely.
The same iconographic theme can be found in an original variant on paper – without the numbers or the reference to Cladders – made in 1985 (GPC-0671).
| 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. 48). |
| 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. 48). |
| 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. 48). |
| 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. 48). |
| 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. 48). |
| 2000-01 | Bologna, Studio G7, Giulio Paolini. Opere Grafiche, 16 December 2000 - 20 January 2001. |
| 2014 | Bologna, Studio G7, Giulio Paolini. Opera grafica e collage, 20 September - 15 November. |
| • | Lithographies, gravures, livres 1988 (Paris: Galerie Lelong, 1987), col. repr. p. 72. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 48, col. repr. (artist’s proof). |
