Nonsense, 1981
GPO-0461
Pencil and red pencil on primed canvas
Nine parts 30 x 20 cm each, overall dimensions 30 x 200 cm
Titled, dated, and signed on the verso of the ninth canvas, lower stretcher bar: “Nonsense / 1981 Giulio Paolini”
Private collection, Turin
The installation is based on the arrangement of the elements with short spaces in between them, thus leaving the letters written on the canvas edge legible.
• 1990, Bologna, Villa delle Rose: installation of the nine elements in three rows in the shelves of a bookcase so as to evoke the image of the spines of books lined up on a shelf (the artist based the exhibition on a series of rooms "furnished" with antique furniture).
At the top of the left edge of nine canvases are the letters that make up the title, while on the front of the canvases, starting from the second element, is a pencil drawing that traces the lateral profile of the canvases "already seen" by way of a gradual vertical scan from left to right. Each time, the drawing becomes part of the last band, with the transcription in red pencil of the letter written on the edge of the canvas that immediately precedes it.
The same theme was formulated in a subsequent variant on paper, made in 1982 (GPO-0468).
| 1990 | Bologna, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Villa delle Rose, Giulio Paolini. Hotel de l’Univers, 27 May - 29 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 25 p. 17 (erroneously dated “1982”), repr. pp. 87, 91 (exhibition views). |
| 2010-11 | Torre Pellice, Tucci Russo Studio d’Arte Contemporanea, Basico. Moto perpetuo, 10 October 2010 - 11 February 2011. |
| 2012 | Torre Pellice, Tucci Russo Studio per l'Arte Contemporanea, selected works by the artists represented by the gallery, from 7 October. |
| 2017 | Turin, Palazzo Cisterna, Lettura per voci e silenzio, 3-5 November, repr. in the exhibition guide, n. pag. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 461 p. 472, col. repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 213 (exhibition view Bologna 1990). |
