La città proibita, 1990
GPE-0074
The Forbidden City
Lithograph
50 x 70 cm
Signed and dated on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini 1990”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
150 in Arabic numerals from 1/150 to 150/150
30 in Roman numerals from I/XXX to XXX/XXX
Unione Piemontese Sviluppo Edilizio, Turin
Marco Noire Editore, Turin
The print was commissioned from the artist by the Unione Piemontese Sviluppo Edilizio (UPSE), Turin, as a Christmas gift for its members.
Standing out in the middle against the background of an ancient view of the city of Alessandria in Piedmont is the project by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux for a city with an elliptical plan in Chaux (1771-79), inscribed in a white passepartout. The French architect's “ideal city” serves as a generating nucleus of four spherical bodies: three cosmic tondi, distributed at different levels with respect to the white frame; and below to the left the spherical architecture of the project for the House of the Forestry Guard (c. 1790) also by Ledoux.
By way of the title – which evokes the ancient Imperial Palace in Beijing, also known as the Forbidden City – Ledoux's “ideal city” becomes the inaccessible place and original model of which the four spheres appear to disseminate a distant echo.
The original collage on which the print is based is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of the works on paper at number GPC-1681.
Background image: H. Etiennery, Alexandrie Vue prise au dessus de la Porte Marengo, lithograph, 28 x 43.5 cm, in Alfred Guesdon, L’Italie à vol de oiseau ou historie et description sommaires des principales villes de cette contrèe (Paris: A. Hanses, 1852), plate 117.
| 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. 75). |
| 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. 75). |
| 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. 75). |
| 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. 75). |
| 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. 75). |
| 1999 | London, Lisson Gallery, Giulio Paolini. Stanze, 16 April - 22 May; edition XVI/XXX. |
| 2001 | Milan, Association Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese, Impressions Graphiques. L’opera grafica di Giulio Paolini, 1967-2000, 17 May - 22 June, not repr. |
| 2002 | Paris, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Impressions graphiques. L’œuvre graphique de Giulio Paolini 1967-2000, 23 April - 21 May, no catalogue. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 75, col. repr. (artist’s proof). |
| • | Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), col. repr. n. pag. (edition XV/XXX). |
