Belvedere, 1991
GPE-0079
Photo print, Murano glass sphere
Photograph 17 x 17 cm, sphere Ø 6 cm
21 x 17 x 6 cm
Signed on the verso of the photograph: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the verso of the photograph
50 in Arabic numerals from 1/50 to 50/50
15 in Roman numerals from I/XV to XV/XV
Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn
The multiple was commissioned from the artist by the Bonner Kunstverein, directed at the time by Annelie Pohlen, as the annual print edition (“Jahresgabe”) for1991, destinated for sale to support its activities. The Bonner Kunstverein hosted a solo exhibition of Paolini's work from 24 February to 29 March 1992.
The crystal ball with a slit serves as a support for the photograph reproducing a bubble-blower, after the painting Les bulles de savon (c.1734) by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. The young man is situated at the very top of a sphere of celestial bodies – in a “belvedere” as the title tells us – so that the various planets become the “soap bubbles” that the young man is intent on blowing.
The game of bubbles-balls-spheres recalls, allegorically, the becoming of a work, and at the same time its irremediable dispersion. The gesture of the young man alludes to the perennial and vain attempt on the part of the author to fix inside a work a dimension of unparalleled perfection (represented by the sphere and by the cosmic iconography), which inevitably eludes every attempt at appropriation.
The multiple is part of a group of works having the same title, made in 1990 using different techniques and in different variants, whose common denominator is a mythological figure or a bubble-blower correlated to one or more astral spheres (cf. among the print editions GPE-0072, among the sculptures GPO-0698, GPO-0700, GPO-0776, among the works on paper in particular GPC-0800, GPC-0832, GPC-0835, GPC-1650, GPC-1712, GPC-2060).
The original collage reproduced in the photograph is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of the works on paper at number GPC-0801.
Figure: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Les bulles de savon, c. 1734, oil on canvas, 61 x 63.2 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
| 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. 80). |
| 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. 80). |
| 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. 80). |
| 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. 80). |
| 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. 80). |
| 2004 | Amsterdam, Galerie A / Harry Ruhé, Anselmo, Boetti, Calzolari, Chiari, Costa, De Maria, Desiato, Fontana, Kounellis, Mattiacci, Merz, Miccini, Munari, Paolini, Pistoletto, Rotella, Spagnulo, Zorio, 12 June - 15 July. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 80, col. repr.; the caption is erroneously linked to catalogue number 81 in the unpaginated list of works. |
| • | Italiana. From Arte Povera to Transavanguardia, exhibition catalogue, Yokohama, Nicaf 3 (Milan: Fondazione Mudima Edizioni, 1994), col. repr. p. 207. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 , vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 679 p. 691, no. 776 p. 790, not repr. |
| • | Le Temps suspendu, edited by G. Careri and B. Rüdiger (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2016), col. repr. p. 158. |
| • | L. Madaro, “Ordine e rigore nell’archivio di Giulio Paolini”, in Arte 574 (Milan), June, 2021, col. repr. p. 79. |
