Suite n. 2, 1975
GPE-0018
Suite No. 2
Photo prints applied to paper, collage and pencil drawing
Three sheets 35 x 35 cm each
Signed, titled and dated on the verso of the third sheet, centre: “Giulio Paolini / Suite n. 2 / 1975”
Autograph numbering on the verso of the third sheet, centre
9 in Arabic numerals from 1/9 to 9/9
Self-produced by the artist
The three plates, individually framed without a passepartout, must be arranged at short intervals from each other and horizontally, from the first (with the photographic print visible) to the third (with just the drawing).
The first sheet features a portrait of Giulio Paolini in his studio as he prepares a canvas for the work Narciso, 1966 (GPO-0095). In the second sheet the same image, smaller in size, is applied to the upper left, corresponding to the canvas that in the photograph is visible in the background, propped up against the wall; the pencil drawing traces the corner of the room. The third sheet is limited to featuring the transcription in pencil of a partial view of the room. In this sequence by subtraction, the image is reduced each time, until it disappears in the last element, which, for its part, once again refers to the first one.1
In the artist's own words: “It is a suite, a sequence of the same passage, a game of mirrors, or rather a scene that takes place three times in the same interval of time and space. I have always been interested in representing the very moment that a work is produced: in this case as well, in fact, the triptych accounts for its own becoming".2
The numbering in the title includes the work in a series – which began with Suite n. 1, 1974 (GPO-0277) and was further developed with the prints Suite n. 3, 1976 (GPE-0022) and Suite n. 4, 2006 (GPE-0115) – whose common denominator is multiplication, through a succession or a suite, as in this case, of the same initial image.
The same theme was developed in an untitled work on paper from the same year (GPC-0403).
1 In this sense, the "narrative" development from one plate to another has another precedent in the portfolio Cahiers d’art, 1975 (GPE-0014).
2 G. Paolini in conversation with I. Bernardi, 26 April 2013.
Portrait of Giulio Paolini in his studio while making Narciso taken by Anna Piva, 1966.
| 1976 | Genoa, Samangallery, Giulio Paolini, 14 January - 7 February. |
| 1976 | Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Giulio Paolini, from 26 February. |
| 1977 | Zurich, Galerie Annemarie Verna, Giulio Paolini, 20 January - 23 February. |
| 1977 | Mannheim, Mannheim Kunstverein, Giulio Paolini, 31 July - 28 August, not repr. |
| 1979 | Athens, Jean & Karen Bernier, Giulio Paolini, 9 May - 5 June. |
| 1984 | Villeurbanne, Le Nouveau Musée, Giulio Paolini, 20 January - 18 March, not repr. |
| 1985-86 | Montreal, Musée d’art contemporain, Giulio Paolini, 7 July - 8 September, touring to: Vancouver, Vancouver Art Gallery, 29 November 1985 - 19 January 1986, same catalogue as for the solo exhibition Villeurbanne 1984. |
| 1986 | Charleroi, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Giulio Paolini, 15 February - 30 March, same catalogue as for the solo exhibition Villeurbanne 1984. |
| 1992 | Bonn, Bonner Kunstverein, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques. Das graphische Werk 1967-1992, 24 February - 29 March (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 18). |
| 1993 | Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques. Das druckgraphische Werk 1967-1992, 16 January - 7 March (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 18). |
| 1995 | Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian / Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques. Múltiplos e Obra Gráfica 1969-1995, 16 March - 28 May, not repr. in the exhibition brochure (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 18). |
| 1996 | Nice, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Arte Povera. Les multiples, 23 March - 16 June, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 37, not repr. |
| 1996 | Apolda, Kunsthaus Apolda Avantgarde, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques, 27 September - 27 October (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 18). |
| 1997 | Göppingen, Kunsthalle, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques. Das graphische Druckwerk 1967-1995, 9 March - 13 April (catalogue Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992], cat. no. 18). |
| 2001 | Milan, Association Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese, Impressions Graphiques. L’opera grafica di Giulio Paolini, 1967-2000, 17 May - 22 June, not repr. |
| 2002 | Paris, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Impressions graphiques. L’œuvre graphique de Giulio Paolini 1967-2000, 23 April - 21 May, no catalogue. |
| 2004 | Copenhagen, The Royal Library, The Gallery, The Significance of Visibility, 27 May - 15 August, no catalogue. |
| 2010-11 | Turin, Galleria Giorgio Persano, Geografia senza punti cardinali. La fotografia nell’arte degli anni ’70 in Italia, 6 November 2010 - 29 January 2011, repr. no. 47 p. 66. |
| • | T. Trini, "Paolini. Le sprigioni”, in Studio Marconi 3-4 (Milan), 5 February 1976, repr. p. 4. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. “Una collezione ‘60/’80” (Milan: Studio Marconi, 1990), repr. pp. 130-131. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 18, repr. |
| • | Divina Mimesis. Un omaggio di Giulio Paolini, Rosemarie Trockel e Cy Twombly a Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante e Pier Paolo Pasolini, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Villa Poniatowski, 2005, repr. p. 25. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 332 p. 341, not repr. |
