Il Tempio della Sibilla, 1984
GPE-0049
The Temple of the Sybil
Lithograph
Plate 63.5 x 47.5 cm folded, 63.5 x 95 cm open
Signed and dated on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini 1984”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
150 in Arabic numerals from 1/150 to 150/150
50 in Roman numerals from I/L to L/L
Unione Piemontese Sviluppo Edilizio, Turin
Marco Noire Editore, Turin
The print was commissioned from the artist by the Unione Piemontese Sviluppo Edilizio (UPSE), Turin, as a Christmas gift for its members.
The print – folded in the middle – offers an ancient view of the ruins of the Temple of the Sybil in Tivoli, doubled so that it features a mirror image, simulating the almost complete view of a building with a circular plan. In the area corresponding to the door to the temple, the artist added, to the background of a colour reproduction of the sky, the halved image of a headless classical sculpture, representing a female figure: looking out of the portal to the left is the left half of the figure, while to the right it is the right half; in both cases, the arm, which is respectively folded and raised, is made evident.
The context of the building in ruins and its circular dynamics, the partial view of the blue sky revealed chromatically offsets the opening up to an enigmatic and imponderable dimension, announced or presided over by the mythological figure.
The original collage on which the print is based is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of the works on paper at number GPC-1673.
• Temple of Sybil, Tivoli.
• Figure: Cesi Juno, 2nd century BC, marble, h 228 cm, Musei Capitolini, Rome; reproduction from Francis Haskell, Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), p. 242, fig. 124 (“Cesi Juno”).
| 1990 | Tokyo, A.T. Gallery, Recent Italian Art, 27 September - 16 November, repr. pp. 34-35. |
| 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. 50). |
| 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. 50). |
| 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. 50). |
| 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. 50). |
| 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. 50). |
| 2001 | Milan, Association Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese, Impressions Graphiques. L’opera grafica di Giulio Paolini, 1967-2000, 17 May - 22 June, not repr. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 50 (with incorrect dimensions “90 x 70 cm”), col. repr. (edition IX/L). |
| • | Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), col. repr. n. pag. (artist’s proof). |
