Delfo (IV), 1997
GPO-0787
Delphos (IV)
Photo print mounted on canvas
180 x 95 cm
Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin
Gift of the artist, 25 October 2012, archive no. GPO-0787
From 23 March 1999 to December 2000 on loan at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin
Delfo (IV) presents the portrait of the artist looking down from the balcony of his home in Turin and inserted in an enlargement of the same photograph corresponding to the frame of the window.
Rather then opening the door towards another space, the window-within-a-window closes on its own repetition by way of a mise en abîme; instead of being a window opened onto the world, the picture is a question about the relationship between the author and the viewer.
The author offers his portrait, but he subtracts himself from his own identity: he is there and not there at the same time. Half-hidden, almost eclipsed, he abdicates the active role of the demiurge and assumes the contemplative position of the viewer. Anyone who questions this enigmatic "oracle" – the title evokes the sanctuary of Ancient Greece where the famous oracle of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi was located – receives no answer. Faced with the viewer's expectations, the author crosses his arms and refuses to offer his opinion. Author and viewer look at each other in silence, from a distance, situated on this and on that side of the work, questioning the reciprocity or even the interchangeability of the mutual gazes.
The work constitutes the fourth version of a theme that began in 1965 (cfr GPO-0085, GPO-0146, GPO-0372).
Portrait of Giulio Paolini taken by Paolo Mussat Sartor, 1987.
| 2013-14 | Rome, MACRO Museo d'arte contemporanea Roma, Giulio Paolini. Essere o non essere, 29 November 2013 - 9 March 2014, touring to: London, Whitechapel Gallery, 9 July - 14 September 2014, cited in the checklist of exhibited works pp. 154 (Rome) / 155 (London), repr. p. 133 (flipped horizontally), entry by M. Disch p. 132, referred to in the texts by G. Guercio p. 64; B. Schwabsky p. 81; in the exhibition guide made by the MACRO repr. p. 23 (flipped horizontally), entry by M. Disch p. 22. |
| 2018-19 | Milan, Fondazione Carriero, Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale, 26 October 2018 - 10 February 2019, col. repr. vol. 1 pp. 128-129 (exhibition view), 177 (flipped horizzontally). |
| • | G. Paolini in A. Coulange, Giulio Paolini, Carnets de la commande publique (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 1997), p. 72; first published in Italian in Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), p. 50. |
| • | XLVII Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, vol: Catalogo Generale (Venice-Milan: La Biennale di Venezia and Electa, 1997), p. 705 (planned in the exhibition, but ultimately not exhibited). |
| • | A. Coulange, Giulio Paolini. Carnets de la commande publique (Paris: Editions du Regard, 1997), p. 72 (note by the artist), repr. p. 73. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), p. 50 (note by the artist), not repr. |
| • | G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), repr. p. 103. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 787 p. 804, repr. (flipped horizontally). |
| • | E. Trincherini, Giulio Paolini. Delfo (IV), 1997. In collezione 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2015 (monograph on the work; flipped horizontally). |
| • | L. Vecere, In assenza. Appunti sull’autoritratto contemporaneo (Pisa: University Press, 2017), pp. 74-75, repr. p. 75. |
| • | I. Bernardi, “Sulla soglia. Giulio Paolini e la Biennale di Venezia”, in Crocevia Biennale, edited by F. Castellani and E. Charans (Milan: Scalpendi Editore, 2017), p. 243, not repr. |
| • | F. Tedeschi, Luoghi di transizione. Forme e immagini di “passaggio” fra arte e architettura (Brescia: Edizioni Morcelliana, 2020), pp. 73-74, repr. no. 31 p. 73. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. pp. 266 (exhibition view Rome 2013), 269 (exhibition view London 2014), 285 (exhibition view Milan 2018). |
| • | F. Belloni, “L’immagine dell’artista”, in 0424. I vent’anni della Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, edited by B. Della Casa (Turin: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, 2025), pp. 19-20, repr. no. 1 p. 19, col. repr. pp. 36-37 (installation at the artist’s home). |
