Suspense, 1987
GPE-0063
Die-cut lithograph
Fabriano Esportazione
Plate 24 x 24 cm folded, 24 x 48 cm open
24 x 23 x 7 cm
Signed on the fourth section of the two-fold print, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the fourth section of the two-fold print, bottom left
150 in Arabic numerals from 1/150 to 150/150
30 in Roman numerals from I/XXX to XXX/XXX
Hopeful Monster editore, Florence
Marco Noire Editore, Turin
The graphic edition was released by the publishing house Hopefulmonster – founded in 1986 in Florence by Beatrice Merz – on the occasion of the publication of the book by Paolini titled Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze. The book is the fourth publication in the series Saggi, which began with volumes by Ferdinand Alquié, Henri Atlan, and Vladimir Jankélévitch. The printing of the graphic edition in 1987 preceded the printing of the book in March 1988.
Grey cardboard box, blank, 25 x 25 x 2.7 cm. Contains the folded plate, a bi-folio with the title-page (first side) and the colophon (third side), and a copy of the book Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze.
Giulio Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988). Saggi series, 24 x 24 cm, 288 pages, paper binding, cover design by the author. Anthology of writings and works by and interviews with the author 1963-87, short story by Anna Piva, b/w illustrations. Print run unknown, 180 copies are accompanied by the print edition in a special case.
Includes information regarding the date of printing (Turing, 1987), printer, publisher, and edition size. Numbering bottom centre.
The two-fold print features, on the first side, contained inside an embossed lozenge, the cut-out detail of a hand associated with a circular hole, while the third side reproduces the image of the Earth against a cosmic blue background. In the exhibited print, the hand seems to be holding the planet which can be glimpsed in the hole in the centre.
The title harkens back to the book that defined the context in which the print was made. Generally speaking, however, it also alludes to that "magical" moment of the imaginary contact between the hand and the terrestrial globe, the symbol of Everything. The gesture, made possible by the illusion of the trompe-l’oeil, is emblematic of the desire that is constantly renewed by the artist of touching with one's hand an ungraspable and unreachable dimension that only the "miracles" of visual language manage to suggest.
| 1989 | Turin, Salone del Libro, Impressions graphiques. Progetti e collaborazioni editoriali di Giulio Paolini, 12-18 May, cat. no. 14 (section “Edizioni a tiratura numerata”), not repr. |
| 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. 64, erroneously dated “1988”). |
| 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. 64, erroneously dated “1988”). |
| 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. 64, erroneously dated “1988”). |
| 1996 | Turin, Galleria Martano, Artists’ Books, 8 May - 10 June, cited in the checklist of exhibited works n. pag., not repr. |
| 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. 64, erroneously dated “1988”). |
| 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. 64, erroneously dated “1988”). |
| 2002 | Modena, Biblioteca civica d’arte Luigi Poletti, Giulio Paolini. Pagine, 20 September - 23 November, col. repr. p. 64 (erroneously dated “1988” in the caption on p. 93). |
| 2011 | Bologna, Aula Magna della Biblioteca Universitaria, Libro / Opera. Viaggio nelle pagine d'artista. La collezione di Danilo Montanari, 16 September - 12 October, col. repr. p. 153. |
| 2025-26 | Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Kupferstichkabinett, YES TO ALL. Die Schenkung Paul Maenz Gerde de Vries für das Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, 12 September 2025 - 11 January 2026, not repr.; artist’s proof. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 64, col. repr. (erroneously dated “1988”). |
| • | L. Dematteis, G. Maffei, Libri d’artista in Italia 1960-1998 (Turin: Regione Piemonte, 1998), cat. no. 2095 p. 178, not repr. |
| • | Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), col. repr. n. pag. |
