Edipo e la Sfinge, 1976
GPO-0329
Oedipus and the Sphinx
Pencil on primed canvas, photo emulsion on canvas
120 x 160 cm (two parts 120 x 80 cm each)
Piero Fedeli Collection, Milan
The black-and-white reproduction of Œdipe et le Sphinx (1808-27) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, printed on the canvas to the right, is reflected in the specular profile of Oedipus, drawn on the canvas to the left.
According to the famous Greek myth, rather than conversing with the enigmatic Sphinx, here Oedipus finds himself asking himself about his own image. Or, in the artist's own words: “Oedipus' question pierces the ghost of the Sphinx and discovers the ghost of a reflexive question”.1 In this sense, the work is part of the theme of the specular comparison and the self-referential doubling that distinguishes Paolini's output from 1975-76.
1 G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. Atto unico in tre quadri, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Studio Marconi (Milan: Gabriele Mazzotta editore, 1979), p. 109.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Œdipe explique l’énigme du sphinx, 1808-27, oil on canvas, 189 x 144 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris; reproduction from L’opera completa di Ingres. Classici dell’arte 19 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1968), plate VII.
| 1978 | Naples, Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes, Giulio Paolini, from 9 February, no catalogue. |
| • | G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. Atto unico in tre quadri, exhibition catalogue, Studio Marconi (Milan: Gabriele Mazzotta editore, 1979), p. 109 (note to the work published in the visitor's guide written for the solo exhibition at Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes, Naples 1978). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Atto unico in tre quadri, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Studio Marconi (Milan: Gabriele Mazzotta editore, 1979), repr. p. 109. |
| • | I. Tomassoni, “Giulio Paolini”, in Flash Art 94-95 (Milan, Italian edition), January-February, 1980, p. 5, repr. p. 6. |
| • | D. Elliott, “Paolini’s early work: language and dialectic”, in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1980, p. 7, repr. p. 33. |
| • | “Kunst in Europa na ’68”, exhibition catalogue, Ghent, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Centrum voor Kunst en Cultuur, 1980, repr. p. 139. |
| • | Casa di Dedalo 1 (Parma), October, 1983, repr. p. 43. |
| • | M. Scholz-Hänsel, “Das imaginäre Museum Giulio Paolinis”, in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 2, p. 19, not repr. |
| • | Copier-créer. De Turner à Picasso – 300 oeuvres inspirées par les maîtres du Louvre, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1993, p. 197, repr. no. 289b p. 402. |
| • | A. Rorimer, New Art in the 60s and 70s. Redefining Reality (London: Thames & Hudson, 2001), p. 68, not repr. |
| • | J.P. Cuzin, D. Salmon, Ingres. Regards croisés (Paris: Éditions Mengès – Réunion des musées nationaux, 2006), p. 212, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 329 p. 338, repr. |
| • | S. Bann, “Apoteosi di Omero. Da Paolini a Ingres”, in S. Bann et al., Il passato al presente. In tema 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), p. 132, repr. p. 142. |
| • | P. Repetto, “Oltre il visibile”, in Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., exhibition catalogue, Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno (Alba: Fondazione Mancini Carini, 2022), p. 34, not repr. |
