Copia dal vero, 1975
GPO-0306
Copy from Life
Pencil on primed canvas and on reversed canvas
Three parts 40 x 40 cm each, overall dimensions 40 x 123 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the third canvas, lower stretcher bar: “Giulio Paolini Copia dal vero / 1975”
Private collection
Three square canvases placed at short intervals from each other – the one in the middle is reversed – feature the proportionally reduced drawing of themselves.
In the artist's own words: “What the drawing inside each of the three canvases tends to copy, to refer, is none other than the surface on which it is about to be delineated. A transcription, therefore, far-removed from the suspicion of the interpretation: a reading of the space, before being a drawing, that does not presume to transcend the truth to which it is applied, that is, the original space of the painting. The pencil drawing, and the canvas itself, each preserve their own differences in dimensions and quality, in the sense that the lines develop within the canvas in a reduced proportion and naturally have a conventional and visual nature that is drawn. But what also exists, between the two dimensions, is an affinity that is apparent from the moment that the one and the other do not aim for reciprocal imitation”.1
The same theme was formulated in five other variants made during the same year (GPO-0278, GPO-0303, GPO-0307, GPO-0316, GPO-0321).
1 G. Paolini, Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), p. 50.
| 1976 | Milan, Studio Marconi, Giulio Paolini, from 5 February. |
| 1982-83 | Lecco, Villa Manzoni, 30 anni d’arte italiana 1950-1980. 3. Oggetti espressivi e concetti percepibili, December 1982 - February 1983, repr. n. pag. (erroneously dated “1976”). |
| 1997 | Lecco, Scuderie di Villa Manzoni and Torre Viscontea, Echi Metafisici, 7 May - 20 June, col. repr. p. 37. |
| • | G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), p. 50. |
| • | T. Trini, “Come l’immaginario si ribella all’immaginazione”, in Data 20 (Milan), March-April, 1976, repr. p. 89. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Werke und Schriften 1960-1980 (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1981), repr. n. pag. (erroneously dated “1976”). |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 173. |
| • | 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. p. 249. |
| • | G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), repr. p. 67. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 306 p. 316, col. repr. |
| • | Brera in contemporaneo. Fabro, Garutti, Kounellis, Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan: Johan & Levi editore, 2015), col. repr. p. 219. |
