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Alceo, 1966

Archive number

GPO-0110

English title

Alcaeus

Technique

Three primed canvases mounted one on top of the other

Dimensions

130 x 130 cm

Inscriptions by the artist

Signed, titled, and dated on the verso, upper stretcher bar, left: “Giulio Paolini / Alceo / 1966”

Collection

Private collection, Florence

Description

Three equilateral triangular canvases placed one on top of the other and turned so that they form a star – the first and third seen from the recto, the one in the middle from the verso – pursue each other in the vain attempt to find an ideal correspondence.
Alceo presents an inverse succession of components with respect to the larger variant of the work entitled Decima musa (GPO-0111), and can ideally be inscribed in the central area of the latter. The intimate correspondence between the two works alludes to the presumed relationship between the Greek poet Alcaeus and Sappho, who was his contemporary and the woman he loved and evoked in some of his poetry, elsewhere known as the "Tenth Muse".

Exhibitions

1978	Bologna, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Metafisica del quotidiano, June - September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 301, repr. p. 317.
2015-16	Milan, Fondazione Prada, Recto Verso, 3 December 2015 - 14 February 2016, col. repr. pp. 5 (recto, in the caption p. 11 no. 6 with incorrect date “1960”), 6 (verso), 39 (exhibition view), referred to in the text by E. Dyangani Ose pp. 21-22.

Bibliography

•	Empirica: l’arte tra addizione e sottrazione, exhibition catalogue, Rimini, Quartiere Fieristico, 1975, repr. p. 202 (with incorrect dimensions).
•	Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), repr. p. 429 (with incorrect title “Decima musa”).
•	On Language and Ecstasy. A Generation in Italian Art, exhibition catalogue, Jyväskylä, Alvar Aalto-Museum, 1985, repr. p. 124 (with incorrect caption, referred to Decima musa).
•	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. 212.
•	Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), repr. p. 167.
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 110 p. 136, repr.
•	E. Dallorso, “‘Space clearing’ ad arte”, in Architectural Digest 423 (Milan, Italian edition), September, 2016, col. repr. p. 137 (installation view at the home of a private collector).
•	E. Dyangani Ose, “Ipotesi per un’istituzione”, in Germano Celant. Cronistoria di un critico militante, edited by Studio Celant (Milan: Skira editore, 2025), pp. 250, 251, not repr.