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Zenit, 1975
GPO-0304
Zenith
Pencil on primed canvas
120 x 160 cm (two parts 120 x 80 cm each)
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the second canvas, upper stretcher bar, right: “Giulio Paolini Zenit / 1975”
Private collection, Milan
The perspectival drawing of a room contains the image of the work itself, evoked by way of two small actual canvases situated in the area corresponding to the rear wall of the virtual room.
The title, whose pendant is Nadir (GPO-0305), refers to the system of astronomical coordinates in which the zenith and the nadir designate two opposite poles. In common language, the two extremes recall the contrast between day and night.
| 1975 | Rome, Galleria D’Alessandro-Ferranti, Giulio Paolini, from 11 October. |
| 2015 | Lugano, Cortesi Gallery, A bout de souffle, 10 September - 1 October. |
| • | Mediterranea 1. Incontro in Sicilia. Linee di ricerca dell’arte italiana, exhibition catalogue, Messina, Fiera Campionaria Internazionale, 1975, repr. n. pag. (exhibition view Rome 1975). |
| • | M. Fagiolo, “Glossario”, in Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), pp. 23, 31-32, repr. no. 200. |
| • | Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), repr. p. 489 (exhibition view Rome 1975). |
| • | Storia moderna dell’arte in Italia. Manifesti, polemiche, documenti, vol. III: Tra Neorealismo ed anni Novanta 1945-1990, edited by P. Barocchi (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1992), repr. no. 103 (exhibition view Rome 1975). |
| • | Adieu, exhibition catalogue, Viterbo, Ex Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Almadiani, 1998, repr. p. 26 (exhibition view Rome 1975). |
| • | Italia 2000. Arte e sistema dell’Arte, edited by A. Bonito Oliva (Madrid-Milan: ARCO Madrid and Giampaolo Prearo Editore, 2000), repr. p. 63 (exhibition view Rome 1975). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 304 p. 314, col. repr. |
| • | Anni 70. Arte a Roma, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome: Iacobelli Editore, 2013), repr. p. 153 (exhibition view Rome 1975). |
| • | Archivio Ugo Ferranti. Roma 1974-1985 , exhibition catalogue, Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo (Rome: Quodlibet Edizioni, 2022), repr. p. 60 (exhibition view Rome 1975). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 144 (exhibition view Rome 1975). |
Entry by Maddalena Disch, 07/05/2026
