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Idem II (regesto delle opere come motivo a linee fosforescenti), 1972-73

Archive number

GPO-0245

English title

Idem II (Register of Works as Phosphorescent Lines Motif)

Technique

Phosphorescent paint on primed canvas

Dimensions

Twenty-five parts 40 x 60 cm each, overall dimensions variable

Collection

Baldassarre Collection

Display

The installation of the work calls for the arrangement of 45 elements in a grid, with regular intervals between each one, on several adjacent walls or on a single wall so that it forms a large quadrilateral of 5 x 5 units. Should the amount of space available be limited, some of the elements can be omitted. Alternatively, the elements can be arranged so that they resemble one continuous frieze, on several walls, at the viewer's eye level or on the upper part of the wall.
In each case the installation calls for the proximity of the canvases on at least one side, so that the linear plot ends up optically generating rectangles between one canvas and another.

Description

The second work in the cycle entitled Idem consists of twenty-five primed canvases, which, in the area corresponding to the median perimeter points, each feature four semi-rectangles, determined by a linear plot made using white phosphorescent paint. Overall, the semi-rectangles of one canvas correspond to those of the adjacent canvases, thereby forming a multitude of presumed “paintings”. The canvases appear to be “annulled” in their real presence, in favour of the countless and precarious images that take shape between them.
The seven works included in the cycle Idem, made between 1972 and 1978, have in common the idea of a "register" of "works", formulated each time in the form of a different "motif" (GPO-0244, GPO-0245, GPO-0261, GPO-0265, GPO-0296, GPO-0335, GPO-0400). “The cycle of works entitled Idem is born as the hypothetical register of all the works in existence, that have existed or that may exist: abstract and virtual, it allows me to proceed in time and in the history of art by listing without naming them the images that make it up”.1 “Idem does not identify which works, but, rather, indicates those works constituting a whole that in some way pre-exists any further analysis or identification”.2

1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2008), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 245 p. 254.
2 G. Paolini interviewed by C. Marchetti (1994), in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 288.

Exhibitions

1973	Milan, Galleria Toselli, Giulio Paolini. Idem (II), from 7 February.
1988-89	Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Giulio Paolini, 24 November 1988 - 26 February 1989, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 95, repr. no. 2 (exhibition view Milan 1973, with detail).

Artist’ writings

•	G. Paolini, Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), p. 82, new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), p. 108; general commentary on the first four versions of Idem (GPO-0244, GPO-0245, GPO-0261, GPO-0265); first published in Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Bolzano, Galleria Il Sole, 1974, n. pag.
•	G. Paolini in the interview with C. Marchetti (1994), in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 288.
•	G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2008), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 245 p. 254.

Bibliography

•	G. Paolini, Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), repr. pp. 84-85 (exhibition view Milan 1973); new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), repr. pp. 110-111 (exhibition view Milan 1973).
•	Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 178 (exhibition view Milan 1973).
•	Paolo Mussat Sartor Fotografo 1968-1978. Arte e artisti in Italia (Turin: Stampatori Editore, 1979), repr. p. 170 (exhibition view Milan 1973).
•	Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), p. 435, not repr.
•	S. Isler, Del bello intelligibile. Semiotische Analyse zu sechs Werken von Giulio Paolini, PhD dissertation (Zurich: Philosophische Fakultät I der Universität Zürich, 1983), pp. 221-224, 228-241 (in general on the cycle titled “Idem”), not repr.
•	M. Disch, “L’atto espositivo. Appunti sul lavoro di Giulio Paolini”, in Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), pp. 117, 121 (in general on the cycle titled “Idem”), repr. p. 118 (exhibition view Milan 1973, with particular).
•	Paolo Mussat Sartor. Artisti e opere. Portraits, exhibition catalogue, Nice, Galerie contemporaine du Musée d’Art moderne et d’Art contemporain, 2003, repr. n. pag. (exhibition view Milan 1973).
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 245 pp. 254-255, repr. (exhibition view Milan 1973).
•	Paolo Mussat Sartor Luoghi d’arte e di artisti. 1968-2008 (Zurich: JPR\|Ringier, 2008), repr. n. pag.
•	G. Bonomi, La disseminazione. Esplosione, frammentazione e dislocazione nell’arte contemporanea (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore, 2009), p. 47, repr.
•	G. Celant, + spazi. Le gallerie Toselli (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2019), pp. 35, 260-261, repr. pp. 275, 276-277 (exhibition views Milan 1973)..
•	Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., exhibition catalogue, Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno (Alba: Fondazione Mancini Carini, 2022), repr. pp. 18-19 (exhibition view Milan 1973).
•	Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 137 (exhibition view Milan 1973).