Les instruments de la passion, 1986
GPO-0581
Wooden trestles painted black, plexiglas tabletop, primed canvas, halogen lamp mounted on tripod, music stand, metal tripod, frame, photo print, centimetre ruler, goniometer
Plexiglas tabletop and primed canvas 120 x 180 cm each, overall dimensions variable
AGO Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Gift of Ydessa Hendeles, 2009, inventory no. 2010/504
Arranged on a table consisting of a plexiglas top resting on two easels are several elements typically used by Paolini to make his artworks: a music stand and a tripod laid down, an empty black metal frame, a black and white life-size photograph of Disegno geometrico (1960), partially retained in the frame, a goniometer and a ruler placed on top of the photograph.
The objects are crossed by a beam from the lit halogen lamp mounted on a tripod lying underneath the table in such a way that their shadow casts an ambiguous image on the primed canvas hanging from the ceiling in an inclined position with respect to the table.
The anecdotic provenance of the French title used by the artist to draw his paraphernalia – the attributes of his vocation and passion – goes back to his recollection of a guided viewing of Rogier van der Weyden’s Last Judgment (1450) in Beaune, particularly the moment when the gallery guide pointed out the panel of the polyptych depicting Christ’s instruments of the Passion.
The same theme was formulated in four other variants, respectively made in 1987 (GPO-0588, GPO-0602), 1988 (GPO-0613) and 1998 (GPO-0810).
| 1986-87 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, Markus Lüpertz, Giulio Paolini: figure, colonne, finestre, 19 December 1986 - 29 March 1987, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 64 p. 118, col. repr. p. 134 (exhibition view). |
| 1987 | New York, Marian Goodman Gallery, Giulio Paolini, 9-31 October, cited in the checklist of exhibited works n. pag., repr. no. II (exhibition view). |
| 1989 | Toronto, Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Giulio Paolini, from 11 March, no catalogue. |
| • | Incrocio: un racconto, exhibition catalogue, Erice, “La Salerniana” (Milan: Nuove edizioni Gabriele Mazzotta, 1987), repr. p. 63 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87). |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. pp. 100-101 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87). |
| • | F. Poli, “Note di lettura”, in Id., Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), p. 29, not repr.; republished in Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), p. 47, not repr. |
| • | E. Lucie-Smith, Artoday (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995), p. 148, repr. no. 157 p. 148 (exhibition view New York 1987); idem in the French edition: L’art aujourd’hui (London: 1995). |
| • | M. Disch, “Giulio Paolini. Hors-d’oeuvre”, in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by Id. (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), pp. 125-126, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch. Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 581 pp. 594-595, repr. (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87). |
| • | Luciano Fabro. Habiter l'autonomie / Inhabiting Autonomy, edited by B. Rüdiger (Lyon: École nationale des beaux-arts, 2010), repr. p. 137 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87). |
| • | P. Repetto, “Oltre il visibile”, in Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., exhibition catalogue, Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno (Alba: Fondazione Mancini Carini, 2022), p. 42 (in general on the group of works titled Les instruments de la passion), not repr. |
