L’anello immaginario, 1989
GPE-0068
The Imaginary Ring
Collage, pencil and red pencil drawing on die-cut paper
Hahnemühle
32.5 x 20 cm
Signed on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
120 in Arabic numerals from 1/120 to 120/120
30 in Roman numerals from I/XXX to XXX/XXX
Slight differences in the pencil drawing on card stock and in the position of the latter with respect to the envelope are due to the manual execution of the drawing.
Edizioni Rizzardi, Milan
Marco Noire Editore, Turin
The print was commissioned from the artist by the Edizioni Rizzardi, Milan – directed by Loredana and Rizzardo Rizzardi – for the volume L'anello immaginario. Storia di amore (1333-1988). The book is part of the series Storie d’amore by the Milan publisher.
L'anello immaginario. Storia di amore (1333-1988) (Milan: Edizioni Rizzardi, 1989). 33 x 21 cm, 81 pages, paper binding, in hard slipcase. The literary texts from Petrarch to Italo Calvino develop an ancient legend about love related to Charlemagne. Limited edition of 150 numbered copies, with print edition included at the back of the book inside a fold-out that when folded features a sealed envelope with the artist’s signature and the handwritten title on it (the position of the drawing corresponds to that of the envelope in the print edition).
The colophon of the book includes information regarding the printers (Alessandro Zanella, Verona for the book, Marco Noire, Turin for the print), type of paper, edition size, place and date of printing (Milan, April 1989). Printed numbering at the centre.
From the open envelope, applied to the centre of the sheet so that it is slightly askew, a white card emerges outlining the squaring of the surface, with the compass arches and the medians in pencil, while the diagonals are traced in red pencil and continue to the edges of the sheet. At the centre in the area corresponding to the intersection of the diagonals, a circular cut-out emphasizes and, at the same time, leaves uncovered the focal point where everything converges.
The context for which the print was created – inserted in the volume titled L'anello immaginario. Storia di amore (The Imaginary Ring. A Love Story) – suggested to the artist the image of a ring with a hole or circle in order to evoke, along with the envelope, an unknown message, a secret entrusted to the imaginary.
In the artist's poetics, the drawing of the squaring harkens back to his first painting, Disegno geometrico, 1960 (GPO-0001), the conceptual matrix of his entire oeuvre, understood as a potential container for all possible images, the preliminary scaffolding of any narrative, in which the diagonals become the vanishing lines of a perspective oriented toward infinity.
The original collage on which the print is based is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné at number GPC-1435.
| 1989 | Turin, Salone del Libro, Impressions graphiques. Progetti e collaborazioni editoriali di Giulio Paolini, 12-18 May, cat. no. 15 (section “Edizioni a tiratura numerata”), not repr. |
| 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. 69). |
| 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. 69). |
| 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. 69). |
| 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. 69). |
| 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. 69). |
| 2008 | Turin, Giorgio Maffei, Arte Povera. Libri d’artista, multipli, fotografie, 14-23 December, no catalogue. |
| 2019 | Boston, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Giulio Paolini: 1983-2010, 21 September - 2 November; artist’s proof. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 69, col. repr. (artist’s proof). |
| • | Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), col. repr. n. pag. |
| • | Una collezione segreta | A Secret Collection. Vilma Gastaudo e Enzo Cella, edited by M. Meneguzzo (Milan: Dario Cimorelli Editore, 2025), col. repr. pp. 131, 235 (in the Collection’s list) (artist’s proof). |
