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Qualcuno o qualcosa, 1987-88
GPO-0627
Someone or Something
Plexiglas structure, mirror, primed canvases
Two canvases 40 x 60 cm each, overall dimensions 160 x 80 x 80 cm
Françoise and Jean-Philippe Billarant Collection, Paris
Located on the middle plane of a plexiglas structure, in a staggered position, is an overturned canvas, which corresponds to the one viewed from the recto located on the lower reflecting plane, as if to bestow physical concreteness upon the specular double.
The enigmatic identity referred to in the title is a part of the unattainable painting without a face that is hidden in the game of reflections between one canvas and another.
The same theme was developed in two previous variants, both made in 1987 (GPO-0587, GPO-0604).
| 1988-89 | Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Giulio Paolini, 24 November 1988 - 26 February 1989, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 95, not repr. (incompletely dated “1987”). |
| 2024 | Marines, Le Silo, from 23 June, as part of the installation of the Collection, no catalogue. |
| • | 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. |
| • | Totalnovo, exhibition catalogue, Palermo, Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana, 1990, repr. p. 84 (exhibition view Rome 1988-89, incompletely dated “1987”). |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), col. repr. no. 131 (incompletely dated “1987”). |
| • | C. Limentani Virdis, “Giulio Paolini. Una tela bianca, un semplice oggetto”, in Anfione Zeto 5, no. 10 (Venice), 1994, pp. 128-130, repr. p. 128. |
| • | Giulio Paolini al Palazzo della Ragione, exhibition catalogue, Padua, Salone del Palazzo della Ragione (Milan: Fabbri Editori, 1995), repr. p. 38 (dated “1988”). |
| • | 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. 282 (incompletely dated “1987”). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 627 p. 646 (dated “1988”), repr. |
| • | Le Silo. Collection Billarant 05 (Dijon: Les Presses du Réel, 2019), col. repr. pp. 51, 52 (installation view at Billarant Collection, Le Silo, Marines). |
| • | Le Silo. Collection Billarant 07 (Dijon: Les Presses du Réel, 2024), col. repr. pp. 114, 115 (installation view at Billarant Collection, Le Silo, Marines). |
Entry by Maddalena Disch, 01/06/2026
