Intervallo, 1985-86
GPO-0571
Interval
Plaster casts, white plinths
Two casts: 63 x 60 x 18 cm, 58 x 64 x 20 cm, two plinths 160 x 50 x 20 cm each, overall dimensions variable
The work was executed in a numbered edition of six.
| 1/6 | Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris |
| 2/6 [?] | AGO Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto |
| 3/6 | Present whereabouts unknown |
| 4/6 [?] | Private collection |
| 5/6 [?] | Private collection |
| 6/6 [?] | Private collection |
| 1/6 | Acquired in 1987 |
| 2/6 | Gift of Ydessa Hendeles, 2009, inventory no. 2010/60 |
The two halves of a plaster cast of the bust of the Hermes of Praxiteles, each of which set down on a plinth, are placed one before the other, up close to two opposite walls. They are slightly staggered in conformity with the figure's gaze.
“Intervallo – writes the artist – is the distance that separates the two ‘moments’ in which the figure comes apart. But on close examination, the intervals are also two. The first one, which is visible, is made up of the short distance that separates the two halves of the same statue on two walls of the room. The second one, which is virtual or imaginary, is the entire circumference of our planet (minus the short portion visible in the room) through which the two halves could be put back together again. Could it therefore be the beginning and the end of the subject?".1
The same theme was formulated in three other variants made in 1984 and in 1985 with casts of other classical statues (GPO-0525, GPO-0542, GPO-0549).
1 G. Paolini in an unpublished passage of an interview with M. Belpoliti that took place in 1999, typescript held in the artist’s archive.
Praxiteles, Hermes and the Infant Dionysos, 350-330 BC, marble, h 215 cm, Archaeological Museum, Olympia.
| 1987 | Nagoya, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Giulio Paolini, 31 October - 20 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works and col. repr. pp. 54-55 (exhibition view). |
| 1989 | Toronto, Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Giulio Paolini, from 11 March, no catalogue. |
| 1989-90 | Jouy-en-Josas, Fondation Cartier, Les Acquisitions de la Fondation Cartier, 15 December 1989 - 15 March 1990, no catalogue; edition 1/6. |
| 1990 | Kiel, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Allegorie, from 8 May, repr. n. pag. (with exhibition view); edition 3/6. |
| 1990 | Trieste, Civico Museo Revoltella, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Neoclassico. L’attualità: arte, architettura, design, 14 July 1990 - 6 January 1991, not repr.; edition 3/6. |
| 1991 | Munich, Kunstverein München, Arte Povera 1971 und 20 Jahre danach, 24 May - 23 June, repr. no. 30 (in the section with b/w illustrations); edition 3/6. |
| 1992-93 | Villeurbanne, Le Nouveau Musée, La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien, 24 June - 31 October, touring to: Toulouse, CRAC Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain Midi-Pyrénées, Labège-Innopole, 19 January - 28 March 1993, cited in the checklist of exhibited works and repr. pp. 190-191, catalogue entry p. 295; edition on loan from Galleria Christian Stein. |
| 1993 | Pau, Le Parvis Scène nationale Tarbes-Pyrénées, Exposition d’été, 4 July - 30 August, no catalogue; edition 1/6. |
| 1993 | Salzburg, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Utopia. Arte italiana 1950-1993, 24 July • 31 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 72 p. 137, repr. p. 107; edition 3/6. |
| 1998 | Paris, Fondation Cartier, La Collection de la Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain 2, 21 January - 22 March, commentary by H. Kelmachter p. 307 (incompletely dated “1985”), col. repr. (incorrect installation); edition 1/6. |
| 2002 | Teramo, Pinacoteca Civica, Exempla. Arte italiana nella vicenda europea 1960-2000, 19 May - 24 November, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 211 (erroneously dated “1984”), repr. p. 157 (erroneously dated “1964”); edition Galleria Christian Stein. |
| 2009 | Pietrasanta, Orientamento #2, Pietrasanta Galleria Cardi, 19 September - 21 November, touring to: Milan, Galleria Cardi, from 1 December 2009; edition on loan from Galleria Christian Stein. |
| 2010 | Milan, Padiglione d'arte contemporanea, Ibrido. Genetica delle forme d'arte, 12-31 March, col. repr. p. 113 (exhibition view Nagoya 1987); edition on loan from Galleria Christian Stein. |
| 2014 | Bergamo, GAMeC Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Il Classico nell’Arte. Modernità della Memoria dall’Arte Greca a Bernini, Paolini e Pistoletto, 7 February - 4 May, col. repr. n. pag.; edition on loan from Galleria Christian Stein. |
| 2015-16 | Milan, Triennale Milano, Ennesima. Una mostra di sette mostre sull’arte italiana, 25 November 2015 - 6 March 2016, vol. “Guida”: cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 210, repr. p. 68, referred to in the entry by N. Ricciardi p. 69; vol. “Per la scrittura di un’immagine”: repr. p. 47; edition on loan from Galleria Christian Stein. |
| • | A. Vettese, “Giulio Paolini”, in Flash Art 143 (Milan, Italian edition), March-April, 1988, col. repr. p. 59 (exhibition view Nagoya 1987, flipped horizontally). |
| • | Mnemosyne oder das Theater der Erinnerung, exhibition catalogue, Worms, Schloss Herrnsheim, 1988, repr. pp. 94-95 (captions on p. 94 and p. 95 are reversed). |
| • | La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée and Art Édition, 1992), repr. pp. 190-191, catalogue entry p. 295. |
| • | Identität: Differenz – Tribüne Trigon 1940-1990. Eine Topografie der Moderne, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Künstlerhaus, Neue Galerie, Stadtmuseum (Vienna-Cologne-Weimar: Böhlau Verlag, 1992), repr. p. 470. |
| • | La Collection de la Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Arles-Paris: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and Actes Sud, 1998), commentary by H. Kelmachter p. 307 (incompletely dated “1985”), col. repr. (incorrect installation). |
| • | M. Unterdörfer, Die Rezeption der Antike in der Postmoderne: der Gipsabguss in der italienischen Kunst der siebziger und achtziger Jahre (Weimar: VDG Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 1998), pp. 34, 50, 171, cat. no. 59 p. 146, not repr. |
| • | S. Busuttil, Blanc (Paris: Éditions Assouline, 2001), repr. no. 129 (incorrect installation). |
| • | Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Arles-Paris: Éditions Actes Sud, 2004), col. repr. no. 12 p. 77 (incorrect installation). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 571 p. 584, repr. |
