Mimesi, 1975
GPO-0285
Mimesis
Colour photo prints in plexiglas cases
Two parts 25 x 21 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Private collection, Perugia
Unlike the versions of Mimesi consisting of two sculpted busts facing each other (GPO-0283, GPO-0317, GPO-0318), in the three photographic variants (GPO-0284, GPO-0285, GPO-0286) the specular confrontation is formulated by two portraits, framed in plexiglas cases of the exact same size as the portraits, and placed on two opposite walls. The life-sized, colour subject taken from an old master painting is distinguished by the fact that it is always a face gazing at us: "it is looking into the lens, at us and/or towards us",1 Paolini remarks. In this case the images reproduce the head of the Grande Odalisque (1814) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, chosen as an image symbolizing perfection in painting2.
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 284 p. 296.
2 ”The subjects I choose from the past so that they reflect each other in their double are usually figures symbolizing beauty (like the Medici Venus) or perfection in painting (like Ingres' Odalisque)", the artist declared in conversation with Ilaria Bernardi (21 January 2013).
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris; reproduction from L’opera completa di Ingres. Classici dell’arte 19 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1968), plate XXVII.
| 1977 | Zurich, Galerie Annemarie Verna, Giulio Paolini, 20 January - 23 February. |
| 1995 | Ghent, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Corpus delicti. Twee privé-verzamelingen: een dialoog noord-zuid / Due collezioni private: un dialogo nord-sud, 1 July - 3 September, cited in the list of works from the collection p. 189, col. repr. pp. 56-57. |
| 1999 | Bornholm (Denmark), Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Arte Povera. Nar holdninger tager kunstnerisk form, 17 October - 31 December, col. repr. pp. 40-41, with anonymous entry. |
| 2006 | Assisi, Ex Pinacoteca Comunale, 33 più 3 Capricci, 25 February - 5 March, col. repr. p. LXXIX. |
| 2007 | Assisi, Ex Pinacoteca Comunale, 43 Capricci, 24 February - 4 March, col. repr. p. 67. |
| 2008 | Assisi, Ex Pinacoteca Comunale, 50 Capricci, 23 February - 2 March, col. repr. p. 77. |
| 2008 | Perugia, Villa Fontana, Capricci, 3 May, touring to: Assisi, Ex Pinacoteca Comunale, 28 February - 1 March 2009, col. repr. p. 31. |
| 2017 | Jesi, Palazzo Bisaccioni, La densità del vuoto. Gli Anni ‘70 dell’arte, 30 June - 24 September, col. repr. p. 79. |
| 2021 | Rome, Erica Ravenna Arte Contemporanea, L’uomo e l’arte, 22 April - 30 June, col. repr. pp. 22, 32, 44 (exhibition views), referred to in the text by L. Cherubini pp. 20-21. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 284 p. 296. |
| • | J.P. Cuzin, D. Salmon, Ingres. Regards croisés (Paris: Éditions Mengès – Réunion des musées nationaux, 2006), p. 212, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 285 p. 297, col. repr. |
| • | S. Bann, “Apoteosi di Omero. Da Paolini a Ingres”, in S. Bann et al., Il passato al presente. In tema 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), p. 132, not repr. |
