Ritratto dell’artista al buio, 1985
GPO-0555
Portrait of the Artist in the Dark
Collage on paper and on glass
Nine framed parts 53.5 x 53.5 cm each, overall dimensions 164 x 164 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso of the ninth element, centre: "Ritratto dell'artista / al buio / Giulio Paolini / 1985"
Private collection
Nine framed black sheets placed at short intervals form a painting which features at the centre the portrait of a man wearing ceremonial attire and a top hat. In the area corresponding to his face, the fragment of an image seems to be held down by a white glove, as if the figure wanted to hide its identity. Nine other details taken from the colour photograph of a sky and five blank pieces of card stock are scattered across the assemblage (the elements arranged along the margins are trimmed), while one further blank card, applied to the glass of the frame in the middle, reinforces the protagonist's gesture of hiding.
Portrait of Fred Astaire, unknown source.
| 1985 | New York, Marian Goodman Gallery, Giulio Paolini. Dal “Trionfo della rappresentazione” (cerimoniale: l’artista è assente), 4 October - 2 November; incorrect installation of the elements 4 and 6, and with the elements 1 and 7 upside down. |
| 2025 | Knokke, QG, Tra terra e concetto, 8 August - 28 September. |
| • | Galeries Magazine 7 (Paris), November, 1985, col. repr. on cover (reproduced with elements 7 and 9 upside down). |
| • | The Belgacom Art Collection 1996-2006 (Brussels: Belgacom Art, 2006), col. repr. p. 169 (reproduced with incorrect orientation of elements 4 and 6, with elements 1 upside down and 7 rotated by 90 degrees anticlockwise). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 555 p. 565, col. repr. (reproduced with incorrect orientation of elements 4 and 6, with elements 1 upside down and 7 rotated by 90 degrees anticlockwise; with incorrect description). |
