In assenza, 2020
GPO-1111
Absent
Pencil, blue pencil, red pencil and collage on paper
Sixteen parts 48 x 33 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso of the sixteenth element, centre: “In assenza / Giulio Paolini / 2020”; variable subtitle on the verso of each element, centre
Collection of the artist
The work consists of sixteen episodes each of which presents the drawing of an anonymous stand-in for the artist, in a contemplative attitude or intent on observing a hypothetical painting, recalled by a distinctive motif (stretcher, linear rectangle, gilt frame, easel, details of photographic reproductions). Each element is marked on the verso by a subtitle, meant to describe the individual image: 1. Quel che appare (That Which Appears), 2. Col tempo (In Time), 3. Nessun traguardo (No Finish Line), 4. L’evidenza (The Evidence), 5. In lacrime (In Tears), 6. Parole al vento (Words Out of Thin Air), 7. In ascolto (Listening), 8. Fuori quadro (Outside the Painting), 9. In due (Two of Us) 10. Il quadro nella stanza (The Painting in the Room), 11. La stanza nel quadro (The Room in the Painting), 12. All’istante (Instantly); 13. Niente (o quasi) (Nothing (or Almost), 14. All’orizzonte (On the Horizon), 15. Da lontano (From Afar), 16. In assenza (In the Absence). Overall, the work assumes an autobiographical dimension. In the artist’s own words: “In time I distanced myself from myself, so that I could observe myself from the outside: observe, but not portray, seeing that it is a figure of uncertain identity, such as the one outlined in the drawings that we see here, motionless or at a slow pace, with no destination, in any case absent and unproductive”.1
In other words, the “self-portrait” in sixteen episodes validates the conceptual paradigm formulated by Paolini from the time of his first painting in 1960 (GPO-0001): the artist abdicates his presumed role as demiurge to wear the clothes of the viewer; he has nothing to declare, no truth to reveal, no urgency to express. In silence he limits himself to waiting for or contemplating a possible apparition within the frame that announces and circumscribes the illusory space of the representation.
The sixteen episodes were conceived for the artist’s book Giulio Paolini (Livorno: Edizioni Peccolo, 2021).
1 G. Paolini, in Giulio Paolini (Livorno: Edizioni Peccolo, 2021), n. pag.
Image of the timepiece from Samuel Abraham Goudsmit, Robert Clairborne, Quarta dimensione: tempo (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1967), p. 8 (”L’ora ufficiale americana”).
