Nécessaire, 1968
GPO-0145
Sheets of white paper
22 x 22 x 28 cm
Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin
Gift of the artist, 25 October 2012, archive no. GPO-0145
The work must be mounted at the centre of an mat white plinth (100 x 50 x 50 cm), in an orthogonal position, and protected by a plexiglas case (50 x 50 x 50 cm).
The piled up reams – made up of sheets of paper weighing approximately 200 grams – are not to be placed directly on the top surface of the plinth, but rather on a rigid support that is slightly smaller in size than the sheets (approximately 20.5 x 26.5 cm, 03-05 mm thick, white cardboard or some other stiff surface), so that the overall volume overhangs just slightly and creates a small shadow.
The work consists of several reams of standard white paper, piled up to create a compact volume.
In the artist’s words: “A pile of white paper sheets makes up the artist's ‘nécessaire’: the indispensable material that is a basic need, what he cannot do without while travelling. And there is no need to preserve them, at every exhibition the sheets are 'necessarily' new”.1
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 145 p. 164.
| 1968 | Turin, Galleria Notizie, Giulio Paolini, 10 April - 2 May, cited in the checklist of exhibited works, not repr. |
| 1970 | Lucerne, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Processi di pensiero visualizzati. Junge italienische Avantgarde, 31 May - 5 July, not repr. |
| 1984 | Villeurbanne, Le Nouveau Musée, Giulio Paolini, 20 January - 18 March, vol. Images/Index, repr. p. 30. |
| 1985-86 | Montreal, Musée d’art contemporain, Giulio Paolini, 7 July - 8 September, touring to: Vancouver, Vancouver Art Gallery, 29 November 1985 - 19 January 1986, same catalogue as for the solo exhibition in Villeurbanne 1984. |
| 1986 | Charleroi, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Giulio Paolini, 15 February - 30 March, same catalogue as for the solo exhibition in Villeurbanne 1984. |
| 1983 | London, Hayward Gallery, Gravity & Grace. The changing condition of Sculpture 1965-1975, 21 January - 14 March, repr. p. 76 and on cover, cited in the exhibition guide. |
| 1993 | Bignan, Centre d’art contemporain du domaine de Kerguéhennec, De la main à la tête, l’objet théorique (section: L’ordre du temps), 1-23 May, repr. n. pag. |
| 2003 | Milan, Fondazione Prada, Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, 29 October - 18 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 402 (erroneously cited as exhibition copy), repr. p. 267. |
| 2013 | Thessaloniki, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, The Mediterranean Experience, 18 September - 31 December, repr. p. 5. |
| 2016-17 | Manchester, The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Elizabeth Price Curates: IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY, 10 June - 30 October, touring to: Bexhill-on-Sea, De La Warr Pavilion, 28 January - 30 April 2017; Swansea, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, 13 May - 28 August 2017, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. [71], repr. p. 29, referred to in the text by E. Price p. [3]. |
| 2018-19 | Milan, Fondazione Carriero, Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale, 26 October 2018 - 10 February 2019, col. repr. vol. 1 pp. 134-135 (exhibition view), b/n repr. vol. 1 p. 160. |
| 2025 | Madrid, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Giulio Paolini e Luca Bertolo. Dietro l’opera, 8 March - 10 May, col. repr. p. 47, entry by E. Volpato p. 68. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 145 p. 164. |
| • | G. Paolini, "Senza titolo / senza autore", in Bartleby I, no. 0 (Prato), January, 2008, p. 6, not repr. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with M. Maloberti, "Giulio Paolini. Miramare", in Flash Art 49, no. 329 (Milan, Italian edition), October-November, 2016, p. 55, not repr. |
| • | Paolini: opere 1961/73, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Studio Marconi, 1973, repr. n. pag. |
| • | G. Paolini, Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), repr. p. 38; new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), repr. p. 64. |
| • | Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 95. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 1, repr. p. 43. |
| • | B. Corà, "L’artista? Un acrobata!", in G. Paolini, Ancora un libro (Rome: Editrice Inonia, 1987), p. 7, not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 225. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 145 p. 164, repr. |
| • | R. Venturi, "Fare schermo all’immagine. Su Unisono di Giulio Paolini", in E. Franz et al., Giulio Paolini. Vedo e non vedo. In tema 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), p. 126, repr. p. 133. |
| • | F. Guzzetti, “'Ich war ein Mann der Institution'”: Jean-Christoph Ammann e Processi di pensiero visualizzati", in Ricerche di storia dell’arte” 132 (Rome) 2020, p. 15, not repr. |
| • | Paolini. I Grandi illustrati del Corriere della Sera. Arte contemporanea – I protagonisti 8, edited by F. Gualdoni (Milan: RCS MediaGroup S.p.a., 2022), p. 9, not repr. |
