Controfigura (critica del punto di vista), 1981

Archive number

GPO-0459

English title

Stand-In (A Critique of the Viewpoint)

Technique

Photo emulsion on canvas

Dimensions

30 x 24 cm

Inscriptions by the artist

Signed and dated on the verso: "Giulio Paolini" (upper stretcher bar) "Controfigura (critica del punto di vista) / 1981" (lower stretcher bar)

Collection

Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin

Acquisitions and loans

Gift of the artist, 25 October 2012, archive no. GPO-0459

Description

In a photomontage printed on canvas, made with a reproduction of Ritratto di giovane di Lorenzo Lotto (1505), Paolini replaced the original subject's eyes with an image of his own eyes.
The change that transforms the original figure into a "stand-in" further develops the role-playing and the exchange of glances implied in the work made in 1967 entitled Giovane che guarda Lorenzo Lotto (GPO-0140). Whereas at the time the attention was focused on the point of view of the young man, who looked at Lorenzo Lotto, now it is focused on the point of view of the author, who, by juxtaposing himself on the model, looks at himself, that is, he offers our gaze his own gaze.

Sources

Lorenzo Lotto, Ritratto di giovane, c. 1505, oil on wood, 28 x 22 cm, Le Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence; reproduction from Mostra di Lorenzo Lotto, edited by Pietro Zampetti, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Palazzo Ducale (Venice: Casa editrice Arte veneta, 1953), p. 15, plate 7.

Exhibitions

1981	Jesi, Centro Documentazione Arti Visive, Palazzo dei Convegni, La ruota del Lotto, from 5 December, repr. n. pag., referred to in the text by F. Caroli n. pag.
1984	Venice, Giardini di Castello, Biennale di Venezia: XLI Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte. Arte allo specchio, 10 June - 9 September, general catalogue: cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 61, not repr.; catalogue Arte allo specchio: cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 54, not repr.
1984-86	Bruxelles, Palais des Beaux-Arts, L’art et le temps. Regards sur la quatrième dimension, 22 November 1984 - 20 January 1985, touring to: Geneva, Musée Rath, 16 February - 14 April 1985; Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 26 April - 23 June 1985; Mannheim, Städtische Kunsthalle, 11 July - 1 September 1985; Vienna, Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, 19 September - 17 November 1985; Villeurbanne, Le Nouveau Musée, 6 December 1985 - 26 January 1986; London, Barbican Center, February-March 1986, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. [281], repr. p. 247.
1998-99	Siena, Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Itinere. 1, 21 November 1998 - 30 January 1999, not repr. in the exhibition guide.
2002	Lugano, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, L’immagine ritrovata. Pittura e fotografia dagli anni ottanta a oggi, 5 October 2002 - 12 January 2003, cat. no. 6 p. 140, repr. p. 47, referred to in the text by E. Grazioli p. 22.
2003	Piacenza, Officina della luce, Ex Centrale Emilia, Cover Theory. L’arte contemporanea come e reinterpretazione, 11 May - 29 June, repr. p. 17, referred to in the text by M. Senaldi p. 23.
2010	Rome, Palazzo Poli, Rendering. Traduzione, citazione, contaminazione. Rapporti tra i linguaggi dell'arte visiva, 20 May - 18 July, repr. p. 73 cat. no. 15.
2014	London, Whitechapel Gallery, Giulio Paolini. To Be or Not to Be, 9 July - 14 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 155, repr. p. 117, catalogue entry by M. Disch p. 116, referred to in the text by G. Guercio p. 64, I. Bernardi p. 91 endnote 6.
2016-17	New York, Center for Italian Modern Art, Giorgio de Chirico – Giulio Paolini / Giulio Paolini – Giorgio de Chirico, 14 October 2016 - 24 June 2017, col. repr. pp. 17, 23 (exhibition view).
2018-19	Milan, Fondazione Carriero, Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale, 26 October 2018 - 10 February 2019, col. repr. vol. 1 pp. 122-123 (exhibition view), 154, referred to in the texts by F. Stocchi vol. 1 p. 39, L. Skreboswki pp. 85-86.

Bibliography

•	Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. p. 80.
•	Arte allo specchio. XLI Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte. La Biennale di Venezia, edited by M. Calvesi (Venice: La Biennale di Venezia, 1984), repr. p. 102.
•	J.L. Maubant, “Giulio Paolini ou le triomphe de la mélancolie”, in Paolini. Melanconia ermetica, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Galerie Maeght Lelong, 1985, p. 5, not repr.
•	F. Poli, “Note di lettura”, in Id., Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), p. 46, repr. no. 41; republished in Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), pp. 75, 77, not repr.
•	J.L. Nancy, Le Regard du portrait (Paris: Éditions Galilée, 2000); Italian edition: Il ritratto e il suo sguardo (Milan: Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2002), pp. 56-57, not repr.
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 459 p. 470, repr.
•	G. Guercio, “Tre considerazioni sull'indecidibilità del limite”, in Vice versa, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 55a Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte La Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2013), pp. 163, 166, not repr.
•	B. Yasar, “’Hypothesis for an Exhibition’”, in “Hypothesis for an Exhibition”, exhibition catalogue, New York, Dominique Lévy Gallery, 2014, p. 37, not repr. (p. 103 an image of Giovane che guarda Lorenzo Lotto erroneously documents the work).
•	E. Volpato, “L’Ile enchantée. La visione è cieca”, in E. Franz et al., Giulio Paolini. Vedo e non vedo. In tema 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), p. 52, repr. p. 89.
•	J. Meinhardt, “Vedere ed essere visti. Giulio Paolini e lo sguardo”, ibid., p. 100.
•	E. Trincherini, Giulio Paolini. Delfo (IV), 1997. In collezione 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2015), pp. 54, 60, col. repr. p. 53.
•	N. Cullinan, “Towards a Poor Theater. Giulio Paolini’s Scenographies in the 1970s / Per un teatro povero. Le scenografie di Giulio Paolini negli anni ‘70”, in TV70: Francesco Vezzoli guarda la RAI, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Prada, 2017, p. 217, not repr.
•	I. Bernardi, “Sulla soglia. Giulio Paolini e la Biennale di Venezia”, in Crocevia Biennale, edited by F. Castellani and E. Charans (Milan: Scalpendi Editore, 2017), p. 242, not repr.
•	E. Grazioli, Infrasottile. L’arte contemporanea ai limiti (Milan: Postmedia books, 2018), p. 74, repr. p. 75.
•	Paolini. I Grandi illustrati del Corriere della Sera. Arte contemporanea – I protagonisti 8, edited by F. Gualdoni (Milan: RCS MediaGroup S.p.a., 2022), p. 40, repr.
•	F. Poli, “Giulio Paolini. La vertigine ironica della visione”, in Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., exhibition catalogue, Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno (Alba: Fondazione Mancini Carini, 2022), p. 59, not repr.
•	S. Lunatici, “L’atto del guardare nell’arte di Giulio Paolini”, in CultFrame – Arti Visive, online journal, 17 Januray 2023, repr.
•	F. Poli, L’ironia è una cosa seria. Strategie dell’arte d’avanguardia e contemporanea (Monza: Johan & Levi editore, 2024), p. 175, not repr.

Entry by Maddalena Disch, 30/01/2026