Honfleur (II), 1969-71
GPO-0211
Honfleur (II)
Collage on primed canvas
80 x 80 cm (four parts 40 x 40 cm each)
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of canvas number 1, lower stretcher bar, centre: “Giulio Paolini / Honfleur (II) 1969/71”; signed and dated on the verso of canvas number 2, lower stretcher bar, right: “Giulio Paolini 1969/71”; signed and dated on the verso of canvas number 3, lower stretcher bar, centre: “Giulio Paolini 1969/71”; signed and dated on the verso of canvas number 4, lower stretcher bar, right: “Giulio Paolini 1969/71”
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Marzona Collection, Berlin
Acquired in 2002, inventory no. NG Mz 108/02
A collage made of torn pieces of coloured paper, applied to four canvases placed close together so that they form a square, corresponding to the four areas divided by the cross brace of the stretcher, macroscopically simulates the chromatic pattern of a landscape viewed through a window. The blue, black, and yellow fragments take turns gradually occupying a position that revolves clockwise around the orange ones placed in the central area. The title alludes to the city in Northern France where Georges Seurat, in 1886, realized a series of landscapes using the style known as Pointillism.
The collage was made at a time when Paolini was particularly fond of the work of Henri Rousseau, Georges Seurat, and Henri Matisse; this same fondness was also shared by Carla Lonzi, who, in 1966, had edited the volumes on Rousseau and Seurat for the “I maestri del colore” series (Milan: Fratelli Fabbri Editori).
The same theme was formulated in a larger version made during the same year (GPO-0208).
| 2000 | Rome, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, (E così via) (And so on). 99 artisti della collezione Marzona, 20 June - 17 September, col. repr. (with a spelling mistake in the title). |
| 2001 | Ludwigsburg, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Aus der Sammlung Marzona, 18 March • 29 April, same catalogue as for the solo exhibition (E così via)... in Rome 2000. |
| 2001 | Codroipo (Udine), Villa Manin di Passariano, Marzona Villa Manin. Una collezione d’arte, 9 June - 26 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 200, col. repr. p. 89 (exhibition view). |
| 2014 | Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof, A-Z. Die Sammlung Marzona, segment “Arte Povera”: 23 January - 20 April, segment “Joker”: 22 November 2014 - 8 February 2015 , cited in the checklist of exhibited works n. pag., col. repr. n. pag. (exhibition view in the segment “Arte Povera”). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 211 p. 221, col. repr. |
