Il cielo e dintorni, 1988
GPO-0624
The Sky and Environs
Silkscreen on silk, metal or wooden poles (depending on whether the installation is indoors or outdoors)
Eighteen flags 100 x 140 cm each, eighteen metal poles h 600 cm each or else wooden poles h 230 cm each (depending on whether the installation is indoors or outdoors), overall dimensions variable
The work was executed in a numbered edition of six from 0/5 to 5/5. Due to the extreme fragility of the silk several supplementary editions were made with a sturdier fabric, and recognized by the artist as display copies.
| 0/5 | Private collection, Turin |
| 1/5 | La Raccolta dei Campiani, Brescia |
| 2/5 | Massimo De Carlo, Milan |
| 3/5 | Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin |
| 4/5 | The Olnick Spanu Collection, New York |
| 5/5 | Alfonso Artiaco, Naples |
| 3/5 | Acquired in 1995, inventory no. C-PAOG-002 |
Featured on the white background of each of the eighteen flags is the colour reproduction of an antique or modern artwork, which includes either a sky in the background or something suspended, either in flight or in mid-air.1 The eighteen details, which, by being reproduced on the cloth of the flags raise the subjects portrayed “even higher up”, metaphorically recall the intangible dimension of imagination and art.
The work realized for the homonymous group exhibition at the Castello di Volpaia can either be installed outdoors, with each of the flags hoisted up on a metal pole, or, indoors, with the flags hanging from the ceiling so that they form an intricate tangle of cloth and wooden poles.2
1 The details are from the works of Albrecht Altdorfer (Alexanderschlacht, 1529), Giacomo Balla (Forze aereoplano Caproni, 1915), Agnolo Bronzino (Deposizione, 1545), Giorgio De Chirico (La partenza degli Argonauti, 1921), Eugène Delacroix (La Liberté guidant le peuple, 1830), Lucio Fontana (Ambiente spaziale al neon, IX Triennale di Milano, 1951), Jean-Louis-Théodore Géricault (Le Radeau de la Méduse, 1819), Giorgione (La tempesta, ca. 1508), Yves Klein (Le saut dans le vide, 1960), Fernand Léger (Les Loisirs: Hommage à Louis David, 1948-49), Perugino (Gonfalone della Giustizia, ca. 1497), Pablo Picasso (Étude pour l’Unesco, 1958), Piero della Francesca (Sacra Conversazione, 1472-74), Raffaello Sanzio (Trasfigurazione, 1520), Henri Rousseau (Paysage avec le dirigeable “Patrie”, 1907-08), Sassetta (San Francesco e il lupo di Gubbio, ca. 1437), Joseph Mallord William Turner (The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October 1834, 1835), and Domenico Veneziano (San Francesco riceve le stigmate, ca. 1445).
2 To this regard the artist has remarked that: "Presenting the flags in an interior in a raised position would be like 'hanging out the washing': in an interior they are neither set down nor raised" (G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch, June 2005).
• Albrecht Altdorfer, Alexanderschlacht, 1529, oil on wood, 158 x 120 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
• Giacomo Balla, Forze aeroplano Caproni, 1915, crayon on paper, 41 x 57 cm, private collection, Rome.
• Agnolo Bronzino, Deposizione, 1545, oil on wood, 268 x 173 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon.
• Giorgio de Chirico, La partenza degli Argonauti, 1920, tempera on canvas, 54 x 73 cm, Collezione Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti per l’Arte Collection. Long-term loan at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli.
• Eugène Delacroix, La Liberté guidant le peuple, 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
• Piero della Francesca, Sacra Conversazione, 1472-74, tempera and oil on wood, 248 x 170 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
• Lucio Fontana, Ambiente spaziale al neon, created for the IX Triennale di Milano, Milan, 1951.
• Jean-Louis-Théodore Géricault, Le Radeau de la Méduse, 1819, oil on canvas, 491 × 716 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Giorgione, La tempesta, c. 1508, tempera and oil on canvas, 83 × 73 cm, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.
• Yves Klein, Le saut dans le vide, 1960, photograph, 26 x 20 cm, J. Paul Getty Trust. The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
• Fernand Léger, Les Loisirs: Hommage à Louis David, 1948-49, oil on canvas, 154 x 185 cm, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
• Perugino, Gonfalone della Giustizia, c. 1501, tempera and oil on canvas, 278 x 138 cm, Galleria nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia.
• Pablo Picasso, Étude pour “La chute d’Icare”, 1958, charcoal and blue pencil on paper.
• Raffaello Sanzio, Trasfigurazione, 1520, tempera on wood, 410 × 279 cm, Musei Vaticani, Vatican City.
- Henri Rousseau, Paysage avec le dirigeable “Patrie”, 1907-08, oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm, Bridgeston Museum, Tokyo.
• Sassetta, San Francesco e il lupo di Gubbio, 1437-44, tempera on wood panel, 87.6 x 52 cm, The National Gallery, London.
• Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October 1834, 1835, oil on canvas, 92 x 123 cm, The Philadelphia Museum of Art: The John Howard McFadden Collection, Philadelphia.
• Domenico Veneziano, San Francesco riceve le stigmate, c. 1445, tempera on wood panel, 26.7 x 30.5 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
| 1988 | Radda in Chianti, Castello di Volpaia, Il cielo e dintorni, 10-25 September, not repr. (rendering of the single flags); outdoor installation. |
| 1989 | Nizza, Villa Arson, Pas à côté pas n’importe où 4, 12 July - 24 September, no catalogue; outdoor installation. |
| 2001 | London, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Beyond Infinity. The arte povera after the arte povera, 31 May - 29 June, col. repr. (loose plate, exhibition view); edition 4/5; indoor installation not curated by the artist, with flags placed in succession up against the wall of the staircase. |
| 2003 | Magdeburg, Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, La Poetica dell’Arte Povera, 14 September - 7 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 66 p. 236, not repr.; edition 4/5; outdoor installation. |
| 2008-09 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Una stanza tutta per sé, 2 April 2008 - 18 January 2009, no catalogue; edition 3/5; indoor installation with flags hanging from the ceiling. |
| 2011-12 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Arte Povera International, 9 October 2011 - 15 April 2012, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 679, not repr.; edition 3/5; indoor installation with flags hanging from the ceiling. |
| 2012 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Oltre il muro, from 15 June, no catalogue; edition 3/5; indoor installation with flags hanging from the ceiling. |
| 2013-14 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, work installed as part of the museum’s collection, from 5 November 2013, no catalogue; edition 3/5; indoor installation with flags hanging from the ceiling. |
| 2017 | Cold Spring, Magazzino Italian Art, Margherita Stein: Rebel Without a Cause, from 24 June, no catalogue; edition 4/5, outdoor installation. |
| 2021 | Panorama, Procida, 2-5 September; edition 5/5; indoor installation with flags hanging from the ceiling. |
| • | G. Paolini in Il cielo e dintorni, exhibition catalogue, Radda in Chianti, Castello di Volpaia, 1988, p. 51; republished in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), repr. p. 48). |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 136 (installation view at the home of a private collector, detail). |
| • | La Collezione (Rivoli-Milan: Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’arte contemporanea and Edizioni Charta, 1994), commentary by G. Verzotti p. 112, col. repr. p. 113 (installation view at Castello di Rivoli, 1994). |
| • | Sous le soleil (Nice: Villa Arson, 1995), col. repr. pp. 124-125 (exhibition view Nice 1989, detail). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), col. repr. p. 49 (installation view at Castello di Rivoli, 1997). |
| • | Arte all’arte. IV edizione: 1999, exhibition catalogue, San Gimignano, Arte Continua, 1999, repr. p. 196 (installation view at Castello di Rivoli, 1997). |
| • | M. Casadio, “Flagging”, in Vogue Italia 600 (Milan), August, 2000, col. repr. p. 216 (installation view at the home of a private collector). |
| • | Arte povera in collezione (Rivoli-Milan: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and Edizioni Charta, 2000), catalogue entry by M. Disch p. 218, col. repr. p. 219 (installation view at Castello di Rivoli, 1997). |
| • | Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. La Residenza Sabauda - La Collezione, edited by I. Gianelli and M. Beccaria (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2003), commentary by G. Verzotti p. 288, col. repr. (installation view at Castello di Rivoli, 1997). |
| • | A. Mammì, “Vi racconto i miei demoni”, in L’espresso (Rome), 30 October 2003, col. repr. p. 145 (installation view at Castello di Rivoli, 1997). |
| • | La Raccolta dei Campiani, edited by P. Cavellini (Brescia: Edizioni Nuovi Strumenti, 2007), col. repr. pp. 24 (detail), 25 (installation view at Campiani Collection), note by P. Cavellini. |
| • | M. Bandini, M.C. Mundici, M.T. Roberto, Luciano Pistoi: “inseguo un mio disegno” (Turin: Hopefulmonster editore, 2008), pp. 65, 302, repr. p. 64 (exhibition view Radda in Chianti 1988). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 624 pp. 642-643, col. repr. |
| • | Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. La Residenza Sabauda – La Collezione (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), p. 411, col. repr. pp. 411 (installation view at Castello di Rivoli, 1997), 416-417 (exhibition view Rivoli 2008). |
| • | Arte Povera in Moscow. Works from the collection of the Castello di Rivoli, exhibition catalogue, Moscow, Multimedia Art Museum, 2011, col. repr. p. 88 (installation view at Castello di Rivoli, 1997). |
| • | A. Acoccella, “Paolini, Giulio”, in Dizionario Lucio Fontana, edited by L. P. Nicoletti, (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2023), p. 409, not repr. |
| • | Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. La storia e le collezioni, edited by C. Christov-Bakargiev and M. Beccaria, Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2023), vol. II, p. 820 (referred to in the text by M. Beccaria), col. repr. p. 829. |
