La Tela della Veronica, 1992
GPE-0089
Veronica’s Veil
Silkscreen on tracing paper, collage and stitching
Hyacinth
Seven bi-folios 48 x 33 cm each folded, 48 x 66 cm each open
Signed on the colophon: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the colophon
50 in Arabic numerals from 1/50 to 50/50
10 H.C. in Roman numerals from I/X to X/X
Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris and Éditions Lebeer Hossmann, Brussels-Hamburg
Roel Goussey, Liège
The graphic edition was produced on the initiative of Laurent Busine, Belgian art historian and friend of Paolini since 1985, as they had both discussed creating something together. The idea took shape in January 1990, starting from an unpublished text by Busine, dedicated to the work La Tela della Veronica and transmitted to the artist for its eventual publication. The initiative which gradually developed between the two interlocutors was printed in May 1992.
Double-sided black cardboard folder with a string-tie button and three glued flaps, closed format 48.5 x 34 x 2 cm; on the front board reproduction in white of the artist’s signature and handwritten title. Contains a double-sided card stock folder, black on the outside, grey on the inside, which includes seven bi-folios: the first one serves as a title-page, the following five feature, on the first page, a progressive Roman numeral and a variable title, and enclose the text by Laurent Busine (on the second page) and the interventions by the artist (on the third page); the sixth bi-folio features the colophon and the copyright.
Includes information regarding the contents of the book, edition size, publishers, place and date of printing (30 May 1992), and printer. Numbering and signature at the centre.
Text by Laurent Busine, La Tela della Veronica, in French, written in 1989, and referring to the eponymous work by Giulio Paolini executed in the same year. The text is divided into five numbered and titled parts: I. La barrière, II. La torsade, III. La surface, IV. La toile, V. La Tela della Veronica.
The print edition originates from a text by Laurent Busine regarding Giulio Paolini's work La tela della Veronica (Veronica's Veil), 1988 (GPO-0635). Five bi-folios feature on the inner-left side the text in French by Busine,1 and on the inner-right side Paolini's intervention in conversation with the text. Paolini’s interventions consist of the five sheets of the manuscript of Busine's text reproduced on tracing paper, applied in succession, but gradually so that they overlap, and varyingly turned and at times partially folded, thereby generating an undecipherable image. Facing the first part of the text is the first sheet of the manuscript; facing the second part of the text are the first two sheets of the manuscript, with the second one placed on the first, and so on. In the fifth bi-folio, the last sheet of the manuscript is crumpled up and overlaps the four previous ones, thus recalling the crumpled up canvas that in the work La tela della Veronica is suspended above.
The parallel path between the typographical text and the manuscript sheets pursues a work described in great detail, but beyond our view, invisible, yet entrusted to our mind's eye. However, it is precisely because of this that the two paths capture the essence of the work in question, which preludes a vision without revealing anything: the crumpled canvas suspended above remains unapproachable and unknown. Enigmatic, like the divine image – the "True Icon”, what is alleged to be the face of Jesus Christ – which according to the famous legend is impressed on Veronica's veil.
1 The numbered and titled text divided into five parts corresponding to the five sheets, describes, in a path aimed at approaching the work, the delimitation of the area that defines it (”I. La Barrière”, The Barrier); the ribbon consisting of the interweaving of photographic fragments from previous exhibitions of the artist's work, stretched between eight steel columns (”II. La Torsade”, The Twist); the empty area delimited by the paper garland (”III. La surface”, The Surface); the hanging canvas (”IV. La Toile”, The Canvas), and, lastly, the meaning of the work (”V. La Tela della Veronica”).
| 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], update supplement 1992-95, cat. no. 90). |
| 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], update supplement 1992-95, cat. no. 90). |
| 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], update supplement 1992-95, cat. no. 90). |
| 2002 | Modena, Biblioteca civica d’arte Luigi Poletti, Giulio Paolini. Pagine, 20 September - 23 November, repr. pp. 70-71 (caption p. 93), referred to in the text by M. Bertoni p. 15. |
| 2010 | Milan, Palazzo Reale, Libri d'artista dalla collezione Consolandi. 1919-2009, 24 March - 22 May, col. repr. p. 106; edition 10/50. |
| 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. 156. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques, l’opera grafica (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1995), update supplement 1992-95 to the volume Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 90, col. repr. |
| • | L. Dematteis, G. Maffei, Libri d’artista in Italia 1960-1998 (Turin: Regione Piemonte, 1998), cat. no. 2098 p. 178, not repr. |
