La Musa (all’orizzonte), 2016-19
GPO-1079
The Muse (on the Horizon)
Plaster high-relief, pencil and coloured pencils on primed canvas
160 x 240 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso, central stretcher bar, centre: "La Musa (all'orizzonte) Giulio Paolini 2016-19"
Collection of the artist
An imaginary perspective, drawn in pencil on a primed canvas, acts as a background to the high-relief in plaster positioned in the area corresponding to the horizon line. The Neoclassical female figure is intent on drawing, as suggested by the three incomplete squares outlined in the primary colours and askew, as if they were trying to find a balancing point.
As the title tells us, the female figure is a Muse, viewed by Paolini as a "source of inspiration and guide for the artist that traces the emblem of the entire visual construction".1 It is as if the squares drawn by the Muse announced the becoming of the overall image of the work.
The theme of the Muse on the horizon was conceived in 2016 with a first smaller version, drawn on paper applied to canvas (GPO-1054), followed by a later variant, also made in 2019, distinguished by a different drawing of rectangles (GPO-1085).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with Bettina Della Casa, 11 June 2019.
Female nude with pen, Neoclassical period.
