Studio per “De pictura”, 1977
GPO-0344
Study for “De pictura”
Pencil on paper, black ink inscription on reversed frame
Nine framed parts 54 x 77 cm each, overall dimensions 166 x 235 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the recto, on the reversed frame: “Giulio Paolini / Studio per / “De pictura” / 1977”
Private collection, Bologna
The installation requires the placement of nine framed elements placed at short intervals from each other to form a large rectangle comprising a unit of 3 x 3.
Nine framed elements placed at short intervals from each other reproduce the perspectival drawing of an exhibition space. The reversed element in the middle simulates the verso of the painting displayed on the fourth side of this room. The signature, title, and date of the work transcribed on the verso of the element in the middle authenticate the painting, which escapes our gaze, and at the same time the work before us.
The dimension of the representation evoked by way of perspective, with its illusory spatiality and ambiguous virtuality, is accentuated by the title, which echoes that of the famous treatise by Leon Battista Alberti (1435), in which the author was the first to theorize the cornerstones of the new Renaissance vision, founded on perspectival construction as it relates to its application in painting.
The same theme was later developed in five other variants on canvas, made between 1977 and 1979 (GPO-0345, GPO-0367, GPO-0385, GPO-0412, GPO-0417).
Title from Leon Battista Alberti, De pictura, 1435.
| 1977 | New York, Ugo Ferranti Gallery c/o The Fine Arts Building, New York, Giulio Paolini / Michele Zaza, 30 April - 24 May. |
| 1984 | Turin, Mole Antonelliana, Coerenza in coerenza. Dall’Arte Povera al 1984, 12 June - 14 October, not repr. |
| 1985 | Madrid, Palacio de Cristal, Palacio de Velázquez, Parque del Retiro, Del Arte Povera a 1985, 24 January - 7 April, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 208, not repr. |
| 1989-90 (?) | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Carte scoperte, 20 December 1989 - 20 February 1990. |
| 1991 | Stockholm, Stockholm Liljevalchs Konsthall, Il miraggio della liricità. Arte astratta in Italia, 4 July - 1 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 158 p. 168, col. repr. p. 159. |
| 1992-93 | Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Das offene Bild. Aspekte der Moderne in Europa nach 1945, 15 November 1992 - 7 February 1993, touring to: Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, 8 April - 31 May 1993, col. repr. p. 176. |
| 1997-98 | Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Arte italiana 1945-1995. Il visibile e l’invisibile, 14 November 1997 - 15 January 1998, touring to: Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art, 1 February - 22 March 1998; Tottori, Yonago City Museum of Art, 23 April - 26 May 1998; Hiroshima, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, 15 June - 26 July 1998, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 59 p. 148 (with incorrect caption), col. repr. p. 96 (rotated by 180 degrees). |
| 1999 | Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, 8 May - 25 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 21 p. 37, repr. p. 111 (exhibition view). |
| • | La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée and Art Édition, 1992), repr. p. 182 (incompletely titled “De Pictura”), catalogue entry p. 292. |
| • | T. Wada, “Giulio Paolini. Artist Interview 1”, in BT Bijutsu Techo 50, no. 755 (Tokyo), May, 1998, col. repr. p. 196 (exhibition view Nagoya 1997-98, erroneously dated “1977-78”). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 344 p. 354, col. repr. |
| • | E. Trincherini, Giulio Paolini. Delfo (IV), 1997. In collezione 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2015), p. 24, col. repr. p. 24. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. p. 231 (exhibition view Turin 1999). |
