Identikit, 1987-89
GPO-0642
Wooden photo frame with white passepartout, glass fragments
Photo frame 49 x 39 x 45 cm
Paolo Consolandi Collection, Milan
A black wooden portrait frame with a white passepartout is associated with fragments of the glass sheet that usually protects the framed portrait, scattered in part in the empty central area and in part around the portrait frame, as if to suggest the subject's "exit from the scene", his exile out of view.
While in the other variants of Identikit – made between 1987 and 2003 (GPO-0589, GPO-0616, GPO-0622, GPO-0883) – the author left some of his unmistakable attributes on the scene (ceremonial attire and other pieces of clothing, or the drawing of his own stand-in wearing a tail-coat, or even of his own hand), in this case the indication of his identity is precisely the disappearance. Whereas in the other cases the author identified himself with a stand-in, here he denies himself any identity; if elsewhere the presumed portrait (or self-portrait) proposes the hypothesis of a face, in this case it denies the same possibility to assume one.
| 1989 | Brescia, Galleria Massimo Minini, Giulio Paolini. L’ospite, from 7 October. |
| 2002 | Siena, Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, De Gustibus. Collezione privata Italia, 3 March - 12 May, repr. p. 143 (repr. in negative). |
| • | T.F. Conti, “Giulio Paolini. Stacco permanente”, in Titolo 2, no. 4 (Perugia), Summer, 1991, repr. p. 9 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Il “Teatro” dell’opera, exhibition catalogue, Pesaro, Galleria Franca Mancini (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1991), col. repr. p. 47 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | M. Bertoni, “Giulio Paolini. Dove Vedo”, in Critica e Documentazione 7, supplement to the bimonthly journal Segno 132 (Pescara), April, 1994, repr. p. 18 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | L’arte attuale, exhibition catalogue, Castelfranco Veneto, Casa del Giorgione (Brescia: Galleria Massimo Minini, 1995), col. repr. p. 34 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | 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. 133, 135, repr. pp. 136, 288 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Premio Internazionale Koinè 2000 alla carriera, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Palazzo Forti (Milan: Electa, 2001), repr. p. 56 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 642 p. 660, repr. |
| • | Vado al massimo. Cronache dall’Italia postmoderna, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Galleria Enrico Astuni (Imola: Maretti Editore, 2020), col. repr. pp. 100-101 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
