Prova d’autore, 2021
GPO-1131
Author’s Proof
Plaster cast, bound books with blank pages, xerox reproductions, plexiglas case, white plinth
Plinth 90 x 75 x 75 cm, case 50 x 75 x 75 cm, overall dimensions 140 x 75 x 75 cm
Collection of the artist
• 2022, Florence, Museo del Novecento: the ensemble of elements is arranged on two staggered blank sheets propped up at the sides of the case.
• 2024, Naples, Alfonso Artiaco: the exhibition design no longer includes the two blank sheets, which were present in the first display in Florence; the reproduction on a cosmic subject was reduced in size, in favour of a more concentrated configuration of the work.
A plaster cast of a hand holding a scroll lies across two bound books filled with blank pages, and arranged so that they are askew, one of them open, the other closed. On the double page of the open book the hand holds down an image with a cosmic subject and the detail of a photographic reproduction dominated by a mixture of colours; another torn fragment, taken from the same iconographic source, emerges from the closed book. The ensemble is arranged on two larger blank sheets that are positioned so that they are askew.
The cast, which refers to the author’s hand, recalls a work in fieri, akin to the colours in freedom, still indistinct, and the title of the work which harkens back to the phase immediately prior to the definition of the image. The work refers to something absolute, incommensurable, which the artist always attempt to touch with his hand.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, right hand of Giuliano de’ Medici’s statue, Tomba di Giuliano de’ Medici, 1526-34, Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Florence.
| 2022 | Florence, Museo Novecento, Giulio Paolini. Quando è il presente?, 18 March - 7 September, col. repr. no. 10 p. 23 (exhibition view), entry by B. Della Casa and M. Disch p. 120. |
| 2024 | Naples, Alfonso Artiaco, Giulio Paolini. Dall’Italia, 2 March - 20 April. |
| • | Museo Novecento 20182022, edited by S. Risaliti (Florence: Forma Edizioni, 2022), repr. pp. 138-139 (exhibition view Florence 2022). |
