Liebe macht blind, 1986
GPO-0572
Blue plexiglas sheets, men’s shoes
Dismantled work
In the Rotunda of the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart Paolini had nine slabs in the floor opposite the row of Neoclassical sculptures removed, so that he could install the same number of blue plexiglas sheets, slightly overlapping one another, in their place. A pair of men's shoes located at the centre in a reversed position transform this virtual body of water into the tomb of a careless diver. The fatal illusion is reinforced, in a metaphorical sense, by the reflection in the plexiglas sheets of the sculpture by Donato Barcaglia entitled Liebe macht blind [Love Makes You Blind] (1884), representing Love as she covers the eyes of a female figure.
Title from Donato Barcaglia, Liebe macht blind, 1884, marble, h 163 cm, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart.
| 1986 | Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Giulio Paolini, 20 September - 2 November, repr. vol. 3 on back cover (exhibition view). |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 215. |
| • | A. Zevi, “Giulio Paolini: Le repliche del naufragio / The replicas of the shipwreck”, in L’Architettura 37, no. 433 (Rome), November, 1991, col. repr. p. 910. |
| • | C. Christov-Bakargiev, Arte Povera (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999), col. repr. p. 138 (flipped horizontally). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 572 p. 585, col. repr. |
| • | S. Bann, “Apoteosi di Omero. Da Paolini a Ingres”, in S. Bann et al., Il passato al presente. In tema 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), p. 124, col. repr. p. 125. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. p. 198 (exhibition view Stuttgart 1986). |
