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Decima musa, 1966

Archive number

GPO-0111

English title

The Tenth Muse

Technique

Three primed canvases mounted one on top of the other

Dimensions

250 x 250 cm

Inscriptions by the artist

Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the canvas in the middle, lower stretcher bar, left: “Giulio Paolini / Decima musa / 1966”

Collection

Lorenzo and Marilena Bonomo Collection

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 verso, the one in the middle from the recto – pursue each other in the vain attempt to find an ideal correspondence.
Decima musa presents a sequence that is the reverse with respect to its smaller variant entitled Alceo (GPO-0110), whose dimensions are ideally inscribed in the central area of this work. 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

1973	Milan, Studio Marconi, Paolini: opere 1961/73, from 15 November, repr. n. pag.
1974	Bern, Kunsthalle Bern, 4 aus Italien. Alfano, Di Bello, Calzolari, Paolini, 9 March - 21 April, repr.
1984	Spoleto, Palazzo Rosari Spada, XXVII Festival dei Due Mondi, Giulio Paolini. Casa di Lucrezio, 27 June - 16 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 1 p. 30, repr. p. 35 (with incorrect date “1976”).
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, not repr.
1999	New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Minimalia: An Italian Vision in 20th Century Art, 10 October 1999 - 2 January 2000, col. repr. p. 204 (rotated by 180 degrees), referred to in the text by V. Coen p. 95.
2015-16	Milan, Fondazione Prada, Recto Verso, 3 December 2015 - 14 February 2016, col. repr. pp. 7 (verso), 8 (recto, caption no. 16 p. 11), 38 (exhibition view), referred to in the text by E. Dyangani Ose pp. 21-22.
2021-22	Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, A.B.O. THEATRON. L’Arte o la Vita, 25 June 2021 - 9 January 2022, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 319, col. repr. p. 290.

Bibliography

•	Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 67.
•	Giulio Paolini. Werke und Schriften 1960-1980 (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1981), repr. n. pag. (rotated by 90 degrees anticlockwise).
•	Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. p. 21.
•	“Giulio Paolini. Casa di Lucrezio, 1981-1984”, in A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu 5, no. 10-11 (Rome), July, 1984, repr. p. 24 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984).
•	S. Taylor, “A Conversation with Giulio Paolini”, in The Print Collector’s Newsletter 15, no. 5 (New York), November-December, 1984, repr. p. 166 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984).
•	“In una casa a Bari. Storia e arte contemporanea”, in Vogue Italia 10, special series (Milan), March, 1985, col. repr. p. 664 (installation view at Bonomo Collection, Bari).
•	Giulio Paolini. "Tutto qui", exhibition catalogue, Ravenna, Pinacoteca Comunale, Loggetta Lombardesca (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1985), repr. no. 6.
•	Notebook (Bari: Galleria Marilena Bonomo, 1987), repr. on cover (erroneously dated “1976”).
•	G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 243.
•	F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 10.
•	O. Westheider, “Giulio Paolini”, in Konzeptkunst in der Hamburger Kunsthalle. Die Sammlung Elisabeth und Gerhard Sohst (Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1997), p. 16, 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), col. repr. pp. 20, 213.
•	Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), col. repr. p. 167 (rotated by 90 degrees clockwise).
•	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. 111 p. 137, col. repr.
•	Paolini. I Grandi illustrati del Corriere della Sera. Arte contemporanea – I protagonisti 8, edited by F. Gualdoni (Milan: RCS MediaGroup S.p.a., 2022), p. 38, col. repr. p. 39.