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Appunti per la descrizione di un quadro datato 1972, 1972

Archive number

GPO-0238

English title

Notes for the Description of a Painting Dated 1972

Technique

Pencil on primed canvas

Dimensions

200 x 300 cm

Inscriptions by the artist

Signed and titled on the verso, upper stretcher bar: “Giulio Paolini / Appunti per la descrizione di un quadro datato 1972”

Collection

The Olnick Spanu Collection, New York

Description

A pattern drawn in pencil on a primed canvas imitates a series of note-filled sheets containing a hypothetical description of the painting itself, as the title tells us. The artist explains: "Impossible to decipher, the writing itself ends up becoming the only given visible: the image of the painting".1
Further development of the work was completed in Ennesima (appunti per la descrizione di sette tele datate 1973) (1973, GPO-0255).

1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 238 p. 246.c

Exhibitions

1972	New York, Sonnabend Gallery, Giulio Paolini, 25 November - 16 December.
1972	Spoleto, Chiesa di San Nicolò, 420 West Broadway at Spoleto Festival. 33 Artists Shown, XV Festival dei Due Mondi, 24 June - 9 July, not repr.
1985	Long Island City, New York, P.S.1 The Institute for Art and Urban Ressources, The Knot. Arte Povera at P.S.1, 6 October - 15 December, not repr.
2017	Cold Spring, Magazzino Italian Art, Margherita Stein: Rebel Without a Cause, from 24 June, no catalogue.

Artist’ writings

•	G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 238 p. 246.

Bibliography

•	G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), pp. 100-108, repr. no. 96 p. 108; chapter published as “Item perspectiva. Opere recenti di Giulio Paolini”, in Domus 516 (Milan), November, 1972, pp. 45-48, repr. p. 48; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), pp. 348, 356, 374, 376; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019).
•	M. Fagiolo, “Glossario”, in Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), p. 19, repr. no. 154.
•	Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), p. 348, repr. p. 379.
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 238 p. 246, col. repr.
•	G. Celant, Ileana Sonnabend and Arte Povera (New York: Lévy Gorvy, 2017), col. repr. p. 201.