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Senza titolo, 1960

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Archive number

GPO-0009

English title

Untitled

Technique

Primed canvas, cotton thread, stretcher, polyethylene

Dimensions

50 x 35 cm

Inscriptions by the artist

Signed and dated on the verso, lower stretcher bar, right: "Giulio Paolini / 1961"

Collection

Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin

Acquisitions and loans

Gift of the artist, 25 October 2012, archive no. GPO-0009

Description

A primed canvas unnailed from its original stretcher and trimmed on three sides is visibly stitched to a slightly larger stretcher, while a transparent polyethylene sheet covers the whole in the manner of a canvas stretched across a stretcher.
The work is part of a study of the relationship between the support and an object that by convention is preliminary to or implicit in the realization of a painting. In the artist's words: "The goal was to come to terms with the painting vis-à-vis what the idea of the picture could stimulate or suggest. Indeed, in the sense of trying to grasp the reason for the physical presence of the picture as an object. […] It was the attempt to provide a work with a form, without the disappointment of seeing it completed. Without the intimidating burden of its meaning".1
The work was replicated in another version from the same year that is distinguished by slight differences in size and in certain material details, such as the knots in the stretcher and the stitching (GPO-0008).

1 G. Paolini interviewed by N. Orengo, in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, p. 5; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 165.

Exhibitions

1977	Mönchengladbach, Städtisches Museum, Giulio Paolini, 3 March - 11 April, repr.
2009	New York, Gagosian Gallery, Piero Manzoni. A Retrospective, 24 January - 21 March, cat. no. 264, col. repr. p. 249.

Artist’ writings

•	G. Paolini in the interview with N. Orengo in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, p. 5; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 165.

Bibliography

•	G. Paolini, Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), repr. p. 7; new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), repr. p. 33.
•	Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 6.
•	Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), repr. p. 49.
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 9 p. 54, col. repr.