Delfo (III), 1977
GPO-0372
Delphos (III)
Photo emulsion on canvas
180 x 95 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso, upper left: “Giulio Paolini / Delfo (III) / 1977”
Private collection
This complex photomontage reproduces a view of the foyer in the artist's home: propped up against the rear wall, between two open doors, is Senza titolo from 1964 (GPO-0060), with a smaller copy of the same photographic view dropping down at the centre, simulating the painting hanging on the wooden panel. At the centre of this (presumed to be) painting, in the same area as Senza titolo in the duplicated photograph, a small square hangs down, hiding the gaze of the figure wearing a costume and turned in our direction. The figure seems to be looking in transparency at the painting that to us appears to be blind.
The figure wearing a toga, his right arm raised and holding a scroll in his other hand, recalls a Roman orator, whose gesture and role are annulled by the mute surface of the white square hiding the figure's face. The fake orator is a stand-in for the artist, and in spite of his traditional role, here he abstains from communication – from uttering "oracular" truths – instead assuming the guise of a spectator.
Figure from Thomas Hope, Costumes of the Greeks and Romans (New York: Dover Publications, 1962), plate 285 (“Roman dresses”).
| 1978 | Naples, Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes, Giulio Paolini, from 9 February, no catalogue. |
| • | I. Tomassoni, “Giulio Paolini”, in Flash Art 94-95 (Milan, Italian edition), January-February, 1980, repr. p. 10. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1980, repr. p. 37. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. p. 129. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. “Tutto qui”, exhibition catalogue, Ravenna, Pinacoteca Comunale, Loggetta Lombardesca (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1985), repr. no. 29. |
| • | G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), repr. p. 55. |
| • | B. Corà, “A una duna di luna nuova”, in Risonanze #2. Giulio Paolini & Fabio Vacchi, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Spazio Risonanze, Auditorium Parco della Musica (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2008), p. 46, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 372 p. 377, repr. |
| • | E. Trincherini, Giulio Paolini. Delfo (IV), 1997. In collezione 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2015), pp. 28, 30, 32, 58, repr. p. 31. |
| • | L. Vecere, In assenza. Appunti sull’autoritratto contemporaneo (Pisa: University Press, 2017), pp. 74-75, repr. p. 75. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 155 (exhibition view Naples 1978). |
| • | F. Belloni, “L’immagine dell’artista”, in 0424. I vent’anni della Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, edited by B. Della Casa (Turin: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, 2025), p. 20, repr. no. 2. |
