Tertium non datur, 1986
GPE-0057
Lithograph
49 x 69 cm
Signed and dated on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini 1986”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
150 in Arabic numerals from 1/150 to 150/150
20 in Roman numerals from I/XX to XX/XX
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 perspectival view of a room in the lower half and the view of a grid gate in the upper part are related by the prolonging of the perspectival trajectories. In the area corresponding to the vanishing point is the colour image of an ancient fortress in ruin, which is overlapped, in transparency, by a grid-like drawing topped by a tympanum and vault, which echoes the small-scale image of the facade of a classical temple inserted at the base of the fortress.
The montage of subjects from different eras and of heterogeneous architectural drawings seems to imply a suspension of the present time, as suggested by the Latin expression in the title (”no third option is given”). The echoes of a distant past and the virtual dimension of the hypothetical future project exclude a third wheel, i.e. the concrete time of the present, which is verifiable and measurable.
The original collage on which the print is based is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of the works on paper at number GPC-1674.
Background image: elevation of the grid surrounding the garden (top) and section of the meeting room (bottom) of the Hôtel de Croisilles, Paris.
| 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. 58). |
| 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. 58). |
| 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. 58). |
| 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. 58). |
| 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. 58). |
| 2014 | Bologna, Studio G7, Giulio Paolini. Opera grafica e collage, 20 September - 15 November. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 58, col. repr. (edition VIII/XX). |
