Dodici vedute (Spoleto 3/7/1978), 1978
GPO-0389
Twelve Views (Spoleto 3/7/1978
Black pencil, red pencil and collage on primed canvas
Twelve parts 30 x 30 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Signed, titled and dated on the verso of the twelfth canvas: “Giulio Paolini” (upper stretcher bar, right), “Dodici vedute / (Spoleto 3/7/1978)” (lower stretcher bar, right)
Valentina Bonomo Collection
The installation calls for the free arrangement of the canvases on one or more walls in a room so that they form a single "quadrant", an orderly sequence over several parallel orders or twelve scattered episodes.
• 1978, Spoleto, Vecchia Torre: installation up the staircase along the route inside the ancient tower.
Each of the twelve elements presents a large letter written in red pencil, so as to spell out the title of the work (“Dodici vedute”), which in turn refers to that of the solo show at the Vecchia Torre in Spoleto for which the work was made.
Each canvas features a collage made up of a fragment of the reproduction of the face of a clock and of a second element that indicates the hour hand (paper fragment, bay leaf, red or black pencil). The sixth and seventh canvases also feature two drawings of a hand: one of them represents a hand with a watch on its wrist that shows the same time as that which is indicated on the fragment of the face, while the other hand is intent upon marking the centre of the canvas. Each time, the fragments of the photographic face are arranged in the position corresponding to the time marked by the hand, so as to gradually go back over the "twelve" hours of the day.
Image of the timepiece from Samuel Abraham Goudsmit, Robert Clairborne, Quarta dimensione: tempo (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1967), p. 8 (”L’ora ufficiale americana”).
| 1978 | Spoleto, Vecchia Torre, Giulio Paolini. Dodici vedute da una vecchia torre a Spoleto, from 3 July, no catalogue. |
| 1978 | Bari, Galleria Marilena Bonomo, Giulio Paolini. 12 vedute da una vecchia torre a Spoleto, from 14 October. |
| • | A. Bonito Oliva, Gratis. A bordo dell’arte (Milan: Skira editore, 2000), col. repr. p. XXII (reproduced as a horizontal sequence). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 389 pp. 394-395, col. repr. |
| • | … but, where is Bari? Percorso nell'arte contemporanea. La Galleria Bonomo dal 1971 / A Journey in contemporary art. The Bonomo Gallery since 1971 (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2010), pp. 41 (referred to in the text by L. Cherubini), 58-59 (referred to in the text by L. Bonomo), col. repr. pp. 68-69 (erroneously titled “Le dodici ore”; with description in the caption). |
