A Luisa, da Giulio, 2014
GPE-0131
To Luisa, from Giulio
Lithograph and original pencil drawing by the artist
Plate 28 x 31 cm folded, 28 x 62 cm open
Signed on the recto, inside the rectangle outlined in pencil in a variable position: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the recto, inside the rectangle outlined in pencil in a variable position
75 in Arabic numerals from 1/75 to 75/75
20 in Roman numerals from I/XX to XX/XX
The position of the rectangle outlined in pencil, which includes the signature and the number, varies from one edition to another.
De Luca Editori d’Arte, Rome
The print was produced by Luisa Laureati Briganti on the occasion of the publication of the portfolio-book titled Corrispondenza tra Giulio Paolini e Luisa Laureati, featuring testimony of the longtime friendship and professional collaboration between the artist and the Roman art dealer.
Corrispondenza tra Giulio Paolini e Luisa Laureati, edited by Barbara Cinelli (Rome: De Luca Editori d'Arte, 2014). Andata <> Ritorno series, no. 1, 29 x 32 cm, 27 loose sheets collected in a folder with four flaps, cover design by the artist. Reproduction of letters between Giulio Paolini and Luisa Laureati, as well as of homages by the artist for his friend from 1974-2014, text by Barbara Cinelli, transcription of the correspondence between Paolini and Laureati 1968-2014, b/w and colour illustrations. Limited edition of 250 numbered copies, of which 105 include the folded print edition.
The colophon of the book includes information regarding edition size and printing technique. Numbering at the centre.
The print is made up of a sheet folded in half, which when closed reproduces the gold-coloured drawing of a closed envelope featuring the handwritten dedication repeated in the title (“to Luisa, from Giulio”).1 When it is open, the print features on the right side, full-bleed, a drawn self-portrait of the artist that overlaps several blank sheets, held down by a drawing pin in the same location as the left eye of the face.2 Overlapping the self-portrait is the drawing of an open envelope and two sheets (they too open, as suggested by the midline), as well as several fragments of writings by the artist, the logo for the Galleria dell’Oca (founded and directed in Rome by Luisa Laureati), and the details of an ink stain (borrowed from La Sainte Vierge II, 1920, by Francis Picabia). A rectangle outlined in pencil, in a variable position from one copy to another of the edition size, includes the signature and numbering.
All the elements at play recall the context in which the print was made: Paolini and Laureati as the interlocutors of the exchange of letters and of the images published in the book; the envelope, the fragments of writing, and the ink stain as motifs linked to the correspondence and to writing.
The original collage from which the print originates is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of the works on paper at number GPC-0421.
1 The drawing refers to the cover of the publication for which the print was made, it too drawn by the artist, with a similar closed envelope in the foreground, multiplied by a series of rotating rectangles.
2 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); among the prints cf. L’ombelico dei limbi (GPE-00812).
• Figure from a portrait of Giulio Paolini taken by Gérard Amsellem, 1983.
• Fragments: Francis Picabia, La Sainte Vierge II, 1920, Indian ink on paper, Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
