L’origine della pittura, 1982-83
GPO-0486
The Origin of Painting
Stretcher, primed canvas, plaster cast, white plinth, fluorescent paint
Stretcher 240 x 380 cm, four canvases 60 x 40 cm each, plaster cast h 110 cm, plinth 112 x 45 x 45 cm, overall dimensions 240 x 390 x 100 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the central canvas: "Giulio Paolini / L'origine della pittura / 1982-83"
MAC Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal
Acquired in 1983, inventory no. A 83 97 S 7
In the space isolated by a large stretcher, arranged so that it blocks off the corner of a room, a plaster cast of Phidias’ Venus set on a plinth, and placed in a position parallel to the stretcher, serves as the personification of painting. The scene is completed by four small canvases, seen either from the recto or the verso, and arranged so that they balance precariously: two of them lie on the floor, the one that is reversed is tilted up against the cast, and the fourth one is halfway up the far right side of the stretcher. The coloured shadow on the rear wall – generated by the reverberation of the fluorescent pink paint spread on the back of the stretcher, the plinth, the cast and part of the reversed canvas – alludes to the origins of painting, with reference to the renowned legend of Pliny the Elder, according to whom painting was born from the desire of a young woman to trace the shadow of her departing lover on the wall.1
1 Cf. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, book XXXV.
Phidias, Venus, h 115 cm.
| 1983 | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Giulio Paolini, 19 January - 1 March. |
| 1985 | Montreal, Musée d’art contemporain, Les vingt ans du Musée à travers sa collection, 21 January - 21 April, entry by P. Landry p. 226, col. repr. p. 227. |
| 1985 | Montreal, Musée d’art contemporain, Giulio Paolini, 7 July - 8 September, repr. p. 62 (same catalogue as for the solo exhibition in Villeurbanne 1984, vol. Images/Index). |
| 1992-93 | Montreal, Musée d’art contemporain, La collection: tableau inaugural, 14 October 1992 - 25 April 1993, repr. p. 276, catalogue entry by S. Grant Marchand pp. 276-277. |
| • | G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), p. 62. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. p. 62. |
| • | L. Rogozinski, “La position crépusculaire. Notes sur l’art italien d’aujourd’hui”, in Parachute 34 (Montreal), March-April-May, 1984, pp. 5-6, repr. p. 4. |
| • | Attraversamenti. Linee della nuova arte contemporanea italiana, exhibition catalogue, Perugia, Rocca Paolina, Palazzo dei Priori, Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo, 1984, repr. p. 102. |
| • | C. Spadoni, “Giulio Paolini”, in Figure. Teoria e critica dell’arte 3, no. 7 (Rome), 1984, p. 93, not repr.; republished in Id., Storie d’arte e di critica tra Ottocento e Novecento (Imola: Maretti Editore, 2021), p. 227, not. repr. |
| • | Les vingt ans du Musée à travers sa collection (Montreal: Musée d’art contemporain, 1985), entry by P. Landry p. 226, col. repr. p. 227. |
| • | G. Celant, Arte Povera. Storie e protagonisti / Art Povera. Histories and protagonists (Milan: Electa, 1985), col. repr. p. 224; idem in the reprint included in G. Celant, Arte Povera. Storia e storie (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2011). |
| • | La Collection: tableau inaugural (Montreal: Musée d’art contemporain, 1992), catalogue entry by S. Grant Marchand pp. 276-277, repr. p. 276. |
| • | Arte Povera, exhibition catalogue, Osaka, Kodama Gallery, 1992, repr. p. 077. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 486 p. 499, col. repr. |
| • | Collezione Christian Stein. Una storia dell'arte italiana / A History of Italian Art (Valencia-Lugano-Milan: IVAM Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Museo Cantonale d'Arte and Mondadori Electa, 2010), col. repr. p. 283 (exhibition view Turin 1983). |
| • | P. Repetto, “Oltre il visibile”, in Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., exhibition catalogue, Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno (Alba: Fondazione Mancini Carini, 2022), p. 41, col. repr. p. 48 no. 18. |
