Les instruments de la passion, 1988
GPO-0613
Wooden trestles painted black, glass tabletop, primed canvas, halogen lamp mounted on tripod, torn photographic reproductions and glass fragments
Dismantled work
Arranged on a table consisting of a plexiglas top resting on two easels are the torn pieces of a colour photograph of Abat-jour (giochi proibiti) (GPO-0614) and several shards of glass. Together they isolate the central square. The lit halogen lamp located under the table projects a beam of light through the empty area and onto the primed canvas, it too square-shaped, hanging from the ceiling so that it is tilted.1
The anecdotic provenance of the French title used by the artist to draw his paraphernalia – the attributes of his vocation and passion – goes back to his recollection of a guided viewing of Rogier van der Weyden’s Last Judgment (1450) in Beaune, particularly the moment when the gallery guide pointed out the panel of the polyptych depicting Christ’s instruments of the Passion.
The same theme was formulated in four other variants, respectively made in 1986 (GPO-0581), 1987 (GPO-0588, GPO-602), and 1998 (GPO-0810).
1 The square shape recalls the one applied to the entire solo exhibition for which the work was made (Cologne 1988), just as the photograph recalls the work installed at the opposite end of the exhibition.
| 1988 | Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Giulio Paolini. Giorno e notte, 22 January - 21 February, col. repr. n. pag., referred to in the text by W.M. Faust n. pag. |
| • | von E bis U. Eine Dokumentations-Collage der Ausstellungen und Aktivitäten von 1973 bis 1989, edited by E.H. Zander and S. Kraus (Cologne: Kölnischer Kunstverein, 1989), repr. p. 229. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 132. |
| • | Inside Out – Museo Città Eventi, exhibition catalogue, Prato, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci (Milan: Edizioni Charta, 1993), col. repr. p. 57 (with incorrect indication of the installation location in the caption on p. 108). |
| • | M. Bertoni, “Giulio Paolini. Dove vedo”, in Critica e documentazione 7, supplement to the bimonthly journal Segno 132 (Pescara), April, 1994, p. 25, not repr.; republished in M. Bertoni, Tempi e forme. Una ricerca sulle arti visive contemporanee (Turin: Hopefulmonster editore, 1998), p. 210 not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), col. repr. p. 275. |
| • | M. Bandini, “Arte che parla dell’arte”, in Ars 8 (Milan), August, 1999, col. repr. p. 101. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Premio Internazionale Koinè 2000 alla carriera, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Palazzo Forti (Milan: Electa, 2001), col. repr. p. 64 (erroneously dated “1986-98”). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 613 p. 630, col. repr. |
| • | E. Franz, “’Vedo e non vedo’”, in E. Franz et al., Giulio Paolini. Vedo e non vedo. In tema 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), p. 36, col. repr. p. 34. |
