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Ut-op, 1966

Archive number

GPO-0094

Technique

Primed canvases

Dimensions

160 x 230 x 230 cm (three parts 160 x 160 cm each)

Inscriptions by the artist

Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of canvas number 1, upper centre: "Giulio Paolini / Ut-op 1966"

Collection

Massimo De Carlo, Milan

Description

Three square primed canvases mirror the three perpendicular planes forming the corner of a room, while at the same time creating the image of an open cube. The title seems to allude to the contemporary current known as Op art, or more in general to a game of ”optical utopia”.1
The work is part of the research that distinguished the artist's output in 1966. Starting from the same premise – canvases juxtaposed so that they mark the corner of a room, seen as the elementary point of origin of a space – many different optical configurations were developed, calling into play the gap between the logical assumption – the elementary and rational given – and the illogical and mutating complexity of the perception.

1 G. Paolini in conversation with G. Celant, 1972, unpublished transcription in the artist's archive, © G. Celant. Paolini repeated the assertion in recent times as well, in conversation with I. Valbonesi, Rome, 29 March 2009, for RAM Radioartemobile, on the occasion of the group show Camere # 8. Fuori gioco: Olafur Eliasson, Giulio Paolini, Erwin Wurm, Rome, Galleria RAM Radioartemobile.

Exhibitions

1966	Milan, Galleria dell’Ariete, Giulio Paolini, from 15 April, cat. no. 4, not repr., referred to in the text by C. Lonzi n. pag.
1990-91	Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma Anni ’60. Al di là della pittura, 20 December 1990 - 15 February 1991, repr. p. 207.
1997-98	Venice, Palazzo Querini Dubois, Minimalia. Da Giacomo Balla a..., 12 June - 12 October, touring to: Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 28 January - 6 April 1998, repr. p. 148 (with incorrect technique).
2001-02	London, Tate Modern, Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972, 31 May - 19 August, touring to: Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, 13 October 2001 - 13 January 2002; Los Angeles, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, 28 April - 22 September 2002; Washington D.C., The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 23 October 2002 - 12 January 2003, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 98 p. 358 (with incorrect dimensions), repr. p. 277.
2003	Milan, Fondazione Prada, Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, 29 October - 18 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 400, repr. p. 161.
2009	Rome, Galleria RAM Radioartemobile, Camere # 8 Fuori gioco: Olafur Eliasson, Giulio Paolini, Erwin Wurm, 2 April - 28 May.

Artist’ writings

•	G. Paolini in the interview with C. Lonzi, "Giulio Paolini", in Collage 7 (Palermo), May, 1967; republished in C. Lonzi, Scritti sull'arte (Milan: Et al./Edizioni, 2012), p. 524.
•	G. Paolini in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 52 (in general concerning the works from GPO-0094 to GPO-0105); republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 166; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019).
•	G. Paolini in the interview with N. Orengo, "Dipingere la pittura", in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, p. 5 (general commentary on the works from GPO-0094 to GPO-0105); 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. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), pp. 51-52, repr. no. 46 p. 51; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 166; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019).
•	N. Orengo, "Giulio Paolini. Dipingere la pittura", in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, repr. p. 5.
•	Paolini: opere 1961/73, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Studio Marconi, 1973, repr. n. pag.
•	G. Paolini, Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), repr. p. 22; new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), repr. p. 48.
•	M. Fagiolo, "Glossario", in Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), p. 25, repr. no. 62.
•	Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), p. 158, not repr.
•	Artisti italiani contemporanei 1950-1983, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Chiesa di San Samuele (Milan: Electa, 1983), repr. p. 49.
•	L’avanguardia plurale. Italia 1960-70, exhibition catalogue, Pescara, Centro di Servizi Culturali, 1983, repr. p. 17.
•	A. Mammì, I. Panicelli, "Giulio Paolini. Bibliografia", in Giulio Paolini. La Casa di Lucrezio, exhibition catalogue, Spoleto, Palazzo Rosari Spada (Casalecchio di Reno: Grafis Edizioni, 1984), p. 10, not repr.; republished in Markus Lüpertz, Giulio Paolini: figure, colonne, finestre, exhibition catalogue, Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, 1986, pp. 75-76, not repr.
•	F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 70.
•	A. Zevi, "Three Artistic Generations in Contemporary Italy" in Three Artistic Generations in Contemporary Italy, exhibition catalogue, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, 1993, pp. 86-87 [sic], repr. p. 27.
•	F. Poli, Minimalismo, Arte Povera, Arte Concettuale (Bari: Editori Laterza, 1995), p. 104, not repr.
•	Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 210.
•	F. Poli, "Ricerche minimaliste e analitiche", in Arte contemporanea. Le ricerche internazionali dalla fine degli anni ’50 a oggi, edited by Id. (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2003), p. 88, not repr.
•	A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 289, not repr.
•	G. Di Genova, Storia dell’Arte Italiana del ‘900 per generazioni. Generazione Anni Quaranta, vol. 6.1 (Bologna: Edizioni Bora, 2007), p. 12, not repr.
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 94 p. 123, repr.
•	G. Celant, Arte Povera. Storia e storie (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2011), p. 57 (text taken from Giulio Paolini, op. cit. [New York: 1972]), repr.
•	M. Siracusa, "Angoli / Corners", in Inventario 7 (Mantua), May, 2013, p. 39, repr.
•	C. Zambianchi, "‘Oltre l’oggetto’: qualche considerazione su Arte Povera e performance", in Ricerche di storia dell’arte 114 (Rome), 2015, p. 41, not repr.; republished in French in Arte Povera. Monument, contre-monument et histoire, edited by C. Palermo (Paris: Éditions Mimésis, 2023), pp. 161-162, not repr.
•	Giulio Paolini. Expositio, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Museo Poldi Pezzoli (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2016), repr. p. 18.
•	R. Cuomo, Giulio Paolini. Lo spazio, 1967. In collezione 4 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), pp. 54, 56, repr. p. 57.
•	RAM radioartemobile, edited by D. Stiefelmeier (Cinisello Balsamo: Di Paolo Edizioni, 2022), pp. 134-135, repr. p. 137 (exhibition view Rome 2009).
•	Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. p. 237 (exhibition view Milan 2003).
•	B. Benedetti, “Anni luce. Cronistoria di un esordio”, in Giulio Paolini. Et in Arcadia ego, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Achille Forti (Imola: Manfredi Edizioni, 2024), p. 78, not repr.
•	F. Guzzetti, “‘Non si trattava di elaborare degli spazi astratti’: Giulio Paolini all’Ariete, 1966”, in Spazi astratti. Interferenze fra architettura e arti a Milano 1945-1970, edited by A.V. Navone, L. Tedeschi, and S. Setti (Milan: Electa, 2024), pp. 125, 130-131, repr. p. 132 (exhibition view Milan 1966).