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Senza titolo, 1964

Archive number

GPO-0053

English title

Untitled

Technique

Plywood panels, nylon thread

Dimensions

192 x 159 cm (two parts 192 x 159 cm, 27.8 x 25.8 cm)

Collection

Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin

Acquisitions and loans

Gift of the artist, 25 October 2012, archive no. GPO-0053

Description

Located at the centre of a plywood panel hanging on the wall is a smaller, almost rectangular panel suspended from the former one by a nylon thread. The work is part of the research that distinguishes the artist's output in 1964, characterized by simple plywood panels that when placed on the ground or hung from the wall, in the artist's words, “‘replaced’ the presence of pictures on the walls and analyzed the purely conventional rapports of an exhibition” (1973).1 By expanding the gesture that merely suggests the possible vision of a painting, chosen by Paolini from the very outset as a paradigm of his own exploration, these works pave the way to the question that the painting raises at the moment of its exhibition and therefore its perception.
There are two variants of this work, made in the same year, which differ slightly in the size and proportions of the two panels (GPO-0052, GPO-0054).

1 G. Paolini, "Note di lavoro", in NAC 3 (Milan), March, 1973, p. 10.

Exhibitions

1965	Turin, Galleria Notizie, Giulio Paolini, from 11 November, cited in the checklist of exhibited works, not repr.
1976	Parma, Palazzo della Pilotta, Sala delle Scuderie, Giulio Paolini, 11 March - 21 April, not repr.
2019	Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Mostre in mostra. Roma contemporanea dagli anni Cinquanta ai Duemila/1, 30 May - 28 July, no catalogue.

Artist’ writings

•	G. Paolini in the interview with N. Orengo, “Giulio Paolini. Dipingere la pittura”, in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, pp. 3, 5; partly republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 166.

Bibliography

•	G. Cortenova, Dal Naufragio... e Ritorno. L’arte negli anni delle ideologie (Milan: Giampaolo Prearo Editore, 2002), col. repr. p. 121 (incorrect installation).
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 53 p. 86, col. repr.
•	Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 148 (exhibition view Parma 1976).