Olimpia, 1981
GPO-0450
Olympia
Pencil on primed canvas, pencil and photo print on reversed canvas
185 x 225 cm (two parts 185 x 112.5 cm each)
Tivioli Collection
Two canvases placed close together, the first seen from the recto, the second from the verso, recall the theme of the opposition between two identical classical figures formulated for the first time in Mimesi, 1975 (GPO-0283). In this case the vis-à-vis is constituted by two images of the Hermes of Praxiteles: in the first the sculpture is represented from the back, half-drawn on a primed canvas and half reproduced in a photograph, while in the second only half of it is represented from the front in the drawing outlined on the right side of the reversed canvas.
The title evokes the city where Praxiteles’ Hermes is preserved (Museum of Olympia).
Praxiteles, Hermes and the Infant Dionysos, 350-330 BC, marble, h 215 cm, Archaeological Museum, Olympia.
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Nagoya, Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1987, repr. p. 30. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 450 p. 460, repr. |
