Vis-à-vis (Amazzone) (2), 2019
GPO-1088
Vis-à-vis (Amazon) (II)
Plaster casts, white plinths, pencil and red pencil on primed canvas
Two casts h 42 cm each, two plinths 130 x 34 x 17 cm each, canvas 160 x 240 cm, overall dimensions 240 x 240 x 20 cm
Private collection
The two halves of a plaster cast of Polycleitus’ head of an Amazon are arranged to face each other – vis-à-vis as the title tells us – on two plinths positioned up against the canvas hanging on the wall. The drawing traced in pencil on the canvas depicts a gallery of paintings; the diagonals traced in red pencil recall – in conceptual terms – the space of the representation, formulated by the artist ever since his first painting, Disegno geometrico, 1960 (GPO-0001).
The gazes exchanged between the two identical faces in the background of this “theatrical setting” questions the reasons for the very existence of the work and its coming into being through our own gaze.
The work, which was made in three variants, is part of the development of a theme conceived in 1992 with Vis-à-vis (Alessandro) (GPO-0707) and Vis-à-vis (Hera) (a multiple, GPE-0087) and revisited in 2020 with Vis-à-vis (Kore) (GPO-1090).
Wounded Amazon, Roman copy of the 5th century BC original by Praxiteles, marble, h 190 cm, Musei Capitolini, Rome.
| 2022 | Bologna, Raccolta Lercaro, Cross Collection. Collezioni a confronto, 5 May - 18 September, col. repr. p. 35, referred to in the text p. 64. |
43 x 41 cm
Private collection, courtesy Fondazione Marconi, Milan
32 x 26 cm
Lorenzo and Marilena Bonomo Collection
34 x 23.3 cm
Collection of the artist
36 x 19 cm
Collection of the artist
Two parts 40.3 x 53.1 cm each, overall dimensions 40.3 x 108.2 cm
Private collection, Milan
33.5 x 50 cm
Collection of the artist
33.5 x 25.5 cm
Collection of the artist
Two parts 42 x 55 cm each, overall dimensions 42 x 112 cm
Collection of the artist
65 x 47 cm
Private collection, Turin
55.7 x 44 cm
Private collection
Present whereabouts unknown
65 x 50 cm
Private collection, St. Gallen (Switzerland)
