Non finito, 1990
GPE-0070
Unfinished
Lithograph and collage
84.5 x 60 cm
Signed on the recto, in a variable position: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the recto, on a torn fragment applied in a variable position
100 in Arabic numerals from 1/100 to 100/100
Each edition is distinguished by a different torn fragment applied by collage, in a variable position, and featuring the number.
Marco Noire Editore, Turin
The print produced by Marco Noire reproduces the poster conceived by the artist during the same year for the Stichting Van Gogh, Amsterdam, as part of a series commissioned from twenty contemporary artists to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Vincent Van Gogh. Unlike the poster, in the graphic edition a paper fragment is applied by collage in a variable position, bearing the edition number; moreover, the dedication to Van Gogh which precedes the note to the text at the lower centre is absent.
The rather faded black and white reproduction of Vincent Van Gogh's self-portrait is divided by the median axes and covered with a multitude of photographic fragments of paintings by other artists. At the bottom of the image, the phrase in autograph handwriting reads: "for Vincent Van Gogh / Unfinished (one hundred fragments of one hundred paintings / painted from 1890 to the present time reveal, / one hundred years later, the self-portrait / of the painter".
In the artist’s own words: "If the fragments, intended as 'brushstrokes', numbered one hundred, they would end up covering the entire surface of the painting, which only then would be finished. The reproduction of the Self-Portrait is very light, so that it evokes the idea of a sinopia: as if the image of Van Gogh surfaced from history, from the fragments of the one hundred paintings that came after him".1 In this sense, the median axes recall the search for an image through the viewfinder of an optical device.
The iconographic theme can be found in a large-scale work made in 1989-90 (GPO-0674) and in a study on paper having the same name dated 1989 (GPC-1801).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2005), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 674, p. 686.
Vincent Van Gogh, Portrait de l’artiste, 1889, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, Musée d’Orsay, 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. 71). |
| 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. 71). |
| 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. 71). |
| 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. 71). |
| 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. 71). |
| • | G. Paolini, Cento frammenti..., note to the work reproduced in the print itself, underneath the image; republished in Impressions graphiques. L'opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 71. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 71, not repr. (reproduction of the poster), with note by the artist Cento frammenti… |
| • | W.N. Arnold, Vincent van Gogh. Chemicals, Crises, and Creativity (Boston: Birkhäuser, 1992), col. repr. on cover. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 674 p. 658, not repr. |
| • | Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), col. repr. n. pag. (edition in which the fragment with the numbering has been lost). |
