Senza titolo, 2008
GPE-0119
Untitled
Lithograph
29.5 x 42 cm
Dated and signed on the recto, in the two middle squares and at bottom: “’08” (upper square, top centre), “- ’09” (middle square, bottom centre), “Giulio Paolini” (bottom right)
Autograph numbering on the recto, on the two side and open squares (edition number in the square to the left, total edition size in the square to the right)
250 in Arabic numerals from 1/250 to 250/250
Lisson Gallery, London
The print was commissioned from the artist by the Lisson Gallery, London, as a Christmas gift for the patrons of the gallery. Each year the gallery invites one of its artists to conceive a graphic edition of which 500 copies are then made; in 2008 the commission was shared by Fernando Ortega and Giulio Paolini (hence, an edition size of 250 copies each), presented in the gallery in two parallel solo exhibitions from 26 November to 17 January 2009.
A male figure wearing ceremonial dress is half-hidden by the square he is holding in front of his face,1 while three other squares that are askew to one another intersect and multiply the central one. The figure is situated in the foreground, inside a volumetric structure, drawn in perspective, which reproduces the large-scale work titled Immacolata Concezione. Senza titolo / Senza autore, 2007-08 (GPO-0961)2.
The number “’09” inscribed in the square held by the figure announces the year 2009 – the print was made as a homage for the end-of-year festivities – while the numbers in the other squares refer to the date of the print, the edition number, and the print run. The reference to the work Immacolata Concezione. Senza titolo / Senza autore is related to the solo show at Lisson Gallery, London, which commissioned the print, in November 2008, where the work played a particularly important role.
1 The drawn motif, a characteristic of the artist's work, was introduced in the mid-1990s (cf. among the works on paper GPC-2183, GPC-1915, GPC-0955).
2 Cf. the presence of the same drawing in the print L’offerta musicale, made a few months earlier (GPE-0118).
Figure 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.
