L’exil du cygne, 1987
GPO-0610
Fragments of photo print mounted on board, stretcher, unstretched primed canvas
Stretcher 240 x 160 cm, overall dimensions variable
Dismantled work
A large stretcher propped up against a door that has been left ajar, with a long canvas that falls to the ground and the photographic fragments of a previous version of L’exil du cygne (1984, GPO-0513) placed against the canvas, represent a painting that has been abandoned or is in ruin. The installation before a door that has been left ajar emphasizes the idea of someone or something exiting the scene – their exile – while leaving in the field the traces of a lost or never realized work.
The first formulations of the theme of L’exil du cygne date to a work from 1982 (GPO-0466) and to the print edition with the same title executed in early 1984 (GPE-0046). Further work on the same theme was expressed in four other homonymous versions, made between 1984 and 1993 (GPO-0513, GPO-0514, GPO-0652, GPO-o712).
| 1987 | Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Giulio Paolini, 16 October - 15 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 5 p. 67, repr. pp. 38, 40, 43 (exhibition views). |
| • | M. Disch, “L’atto espositivo. Appunti sul lavoro di Giulio Paolini”, 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. 127, 133, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 610 p. 626, col. repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 202. |
