Niente e subito, 2006
GPO-0929
Nothing at Once
Plexiglas plinths, sheet of drawing paper, black pencil
Two plinths 120 x 40 x 40 cm and 116 x 32 x 32 cm, sheet 30 x 30 cm, overall dimensions 120 x 40 x 40 cm
The work was executed in a numbered edition of six plus one unnumbered edition.
| 1/6 | Private collection |
| 2/6 | Luisa Laureati Briganti Collection, Rome |
| 3/6 | Collection of the artist |
| 4/6 | Private collection |
| 5/6 | Marco Canepa collection |
| 6/6 | Noire Gallery, Turin |
| N.n. | Jacorossi Collection, Rome |
Two plexiglas plinths inserted one inside the other enclose a black pencil placed atop the smaller plinth, and a sheet of drawing paper, arranged under the latter on the floor. The “nothing” announced in the title (borrowed from the phrase “everything now”) is expressed in the silent immobility: nothing happens, all is silent. The pencil and the sheet lie inert, suspended as they await contact. The “nothing” that is declaredly shown
“instantly” before our gaze, and the drawing tools, elevated to the subject of the work, underpin a potential that includes any image.
| 2007 | Milan, Giò Marconi, Giulio Paolini, 4 May - 27 July; edition 2/6. |
| 2008 | Bologna, Studio G7, Giulio Paolini. Immacolata Concezione. Senza titolo / Senza autore, 19 January - 8 March; edition 4/6. |
| 2008-09 | London, Lisson Gallery, Giulio Paolini, 26 November 2008 - 17 March 2009; edition 3/6. |
| 2009 | Zurich, Annemarie Verna Galerie, Giulio Paolini. Aula di disegno (Happy Days), 9 October - 28 November; edition 4/6. |
| 2014 | Milan, ArteValori, Giulio Paolini. Raccolta di opere, 5 June - 18 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 44, col. repr. pp. 28-29; edition 5/6. |
| 2014 | London, Whitechapel Gallery, Giulio Paolini. To Be or Not to Be, 9 July - 14 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 155, col. repr. p. 141 (exhibition view London 2008), entry by M. Disch p. 140; edition 3/6. |
| 2014-15 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Intenzione manifesta. Il disegno in tutte le sue forme, 11 October 2014 - 25 January 2015, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 281, col. repr. p. 127 (exhibition view London 2008); edition 4/6. |
| 2014 | Milan, ArteValori, Manifesto-Protagonisti, 4-30 November; edition 5/6. |
| 2019 | Turin, Noire Gallery, Giulio Paolini. Promemoria, 12 April - 10 June; edition 6/6. |
| • | Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), col. repr. n. pag. [161]. |
| • | Una collezione segreta | A Secret Collection. Vilma Gastaudo e Enzo Cella, edited by M. Meneguzzo (Milan: Dario Cimorelli Editore, 2025), col. repr. pp. 179, 235 (in the Collection’s list); edition 4/6. |
