L’ombelico dei limbi, 1991
GPE-0082
The Ombilicus of Limbo
Photo-lithographic print and collage
Fedrigoni Acquerello
23 x 16.5 cm
Signed on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
100 in Arabic numerals from 1/100 to 100/100
Slight differences in the lower margin of the element applied by collage are due to the tearing of the paper by hand.
Edizioni l’Obliquo, Brescia
Emmebi Grafica, Bornasco (Pavia)
The print reproduces one of the four plates commissioned from the artist by Edizioni l’Obliquo, Brescia – directed by Giorgio Bertelli – on the occasion of the publication of the book by Antonin Artaud titled L’ombelico dei limbi (The Ombilicus of Limbo, original French title: L’ombilic des limbes, 1925). The book, published in collaboration with the Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, is part of the series Interferenze by the Brescia publisher, and it was also the beginning of a prolific collaboration with the Turin artist.
Antonin Artaud, L’ombelico dei limbi, edited by Massimo Raffaeli (Brescia: Edizioni l’Obliquo, 1991). Interferenze series no. 17, 23.5 x 17.2 cm, 32 pages, bound. Text by the author and note by the curator, four out-of-text folded plates by Giulio Paolini are enclosed. Limited edition of 500 copies, of which 100 numbered and signed include the print edition.
The colophon of the book includes information regarding printer, edition size, type of paper, and date of printing (October 1991).
The lithograph reproduces a self-portrait of the artist, in a pensive pose, which overlaps other blank sheets in a pile.1 The first sheet, torn along the lower margin, reproduces the profile of a male figure in tails holding a small blue ball. The sheet is held in place by a drawing pin, situated in the area corresponding to both the left eye of the artist's face, and the gaze of the figure in tails, acting as a compositional fulcrum.
The circular shape of the grey metal pin converses with the eyeglasses with round lenses and above all with the sky-blue sphere, thus establishing a semantic nexus between these motifs. In the author's gaze and in that of his stand-in, the drawing pin holds down the blank sheets that are a prelude to the potential becoming of a work of art: an event that is announced, in a figurative sense, by the figure in tails2 and foreshadowed, in an allegorical key, by the cosmic sphere, the ideal symbol of completeness.
1 The face traced from a portrait made by the photographer Gérard Amsellem in 1983 and outlined on the pile of drawing sheets was made into a lithograph in 1989 for a series of works on paper titled Senza titolo (Ni le soleil ni la mort...) (cf. from GPC-0752 to GPC-0759). The lithographic sheet was later used for numerous other variants, including this print and the other three plates conceived for the book L’ombelico dei limbi published by Edizioni l’Obliquo, Brescia, as well as for the print A Luisa, da Giulio, 2014 (GPE-0131).
2 The figure in tails, introduced by Paolini in 1971 as a stylized self-portrait in ceremonial dress, is a stand-in for the author who covers the role of a master of ceremonies or presenter, in other cases an actor and an illusionist, usually in relation to the wait or the announcement of the possible manifestations of a work.
• Figure from a portrait of Giulio Paolini taken by Gérard Amsellem, 1983.
• Figure in tailcoat from Antonio Sandre, Il costume nei tempi (Turin: Scuola Taglio Moderno, 1961), p. 268, fig. 299 (”Da ‘Minister’s Gazette of fashions’, 1925-30”), with the transformation of the original jacket into a tailcoat.
• Title from Antonin Artaud, L'Ombilic des Limbes (Paris: Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, 1925).
| 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. 83). |
| 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. 83). |
| 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. 83). |
| 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. 83). |
| 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. 83). |
| 2002 | Paris, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Impressions graphiques. L’œuvre graphique de Giulio Paolini 1967-2000, 23 April - 21 May, no catalogue. |
| 2002 | Modena, Biblioteca civica d’arte Luigi Poletti, Giulio Paolini. Pagine, 20 September - 23 November, not repr. (on p. 68 reproduction of the cover of the book and of one of the four included plates, caption p. 93), referred to in the text by M. Bertoni p. 16. |
| 2006 | Brescia, Sale disegni e stampe della Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Edizioni l’Obliquo. Vent’anni di libri e grafiche 1986-2006, 15 September - 8 October, in the book published at the occasion of the exhibition, Edizioni l’Obliquo. Vent’anni di libri. Aprile 1986 - aprile 2006 (Brescia: Edizioni l’Obliquo, 2006), col. repr. p. 23; edition 63/100. |
| 2011 | Bologna, Aula Magna della Biblioteca Universitaria, Libro / Opera. Viaggio nelle pagine d'artista. La collezione di Danilo Montanari, 16 September - 12 October, col. repr. p. 157 (erroneously dated “1992”). |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 83 (erroneously dated “1992”), col. repr. (reproduction of the four printed plates included in the book by Artaud). |
