Promemoria, 2017
GPE-0140
Reminder
Fine Art print
Amalfi cotton paper
Nine plates 40 x 30 cm each
Signed on the colophon of the book
Autograph numbering on the colophon of the book
50 in Arabic numerals from 1/50 to 50/50
Noire Editore, Turin
The book is part of a series of artist's book produced by the publisher Marco Noire, Turin, in close collaboration with the authors. The volumes share the variable number of bi-folios collected in a cover, contained in a slipcase, with illustrated plates and at times notes by the artist. The series that began in 2017 includes volumes by David Tremlett (2017), Giulio Paolini (2017), Alan Charlton (2017), and Paolo Icaro (2019).
Hard white slipcase with shaped upper left corner, 43 x 32.5 x 3.5 cm, contains the book featuring a hard white cover, titles on the spine (author, title, publisher). The cover holds thirteen bi-folios: the first one is blank, the second one features the name of the author (first side) and the title (second and third side, in English and in Italian, respectively), the third bi-folio features the name of the publisher (first side) and a preface by the author (second and third sides, in English and in Italian, respectively), the following nine bi-folios include the plates and each feature a note by the author on the second (in English) and third (in Italian) sides, while the last bi-folio includes the colophon.
Foreword (Nove apparizioni...) and nine notes by the artist referred to the figures represented in the plates, each marked by a date that refers to a work or a biographical moment related to the figure in question. For the sake of example: the note related to Lucio Fontana, dated May 1966, recalls Paolini's solo show at the Galleria dell’Ariete in Milan, where Fontana acquired a work by Paolini (GPO-0108); the note related to Marcel Duchamp, dated September 1965 recalls the work Iper (a M. D.), dedicated by Paolini to the French artist (GPO-0089); the note related to Salvador Dalì, dated March 1998, recalls Gala's presence in the image conceived for the cover of the catalogue and for the poster of the solo exhibition at the Neue Galerie, Graz, in the spring of 1998 (cf. the original collage GPC-0928).
Includes information regarding the plates and copyright (© 2017 Noireditore). Numbering and signature at the centre.
Preface (Nove apparizioni....) and nine notes by the artist referring to the characters portrayed in the plates.
The wall installation of the nine plates, in three parallel rows or in a single horizontal sequence, at a short or great distance from each other (depending on the size of the wall), reiterates the order of succession of the images in the book: starting with Luigi Pirandello, and continuing with Raymond Roussel, Marcel Duchamp, Lucio Fontana, Fausto Melotti, Giorgio de Chirico, Italo Calvino, Salvador Dalì, and Fernando Pessoa.
Each of the nine plates reproduces a photomontage, consisting of a portrait of an artist or of a writer set in the exhibition rooms of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Rivoli.1 Starting from the top left-hand corner the images feature: Luigi Pirandello, busy typing; Raymond Roussel, posing seated; Marcel Duchamp, in a contemplative demeanour (in silent conversation with Giulio Paolini, to the left and slightly blurred); Lucio Fontana, surrounded by the torn fragments of one of his drawings; Fausto Melotti, waving from the threshold of a room; Giorgio de Chirico, seen with some manuscript pages from his novel Il signor Dudron; Italo Calvino, up against a window sill holding some blank sheets; Salvador Dalí, standing at the back as he looks at his wife Gala, who is seated in the foreground and viewed from behind; Fernando Pessoa, surrounded by a white frame.
In the artist's own words, the plates suggest "imaginary encounters rediscovered today in the arc of my memory".2 The figures who are the guests of the museum rooms invite the viewer to take a "guided tour" through the universe of Paolini's thinking: exponents of an elective genealogy, the figures dear to the artist suggest intimate predilections and conceptual references.
The plates are based on the nine collages documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of the works on paper at number GPC-1571.
1 The background image of the second, third, and sixth plates reproduces moments of activity during the installation of Paolini's work titled Detto (non) fatto (GPO-0991) for the group exhibition Tutto è connesso. Opere della collezione del Castello di Rivoli 1998-2009 (8 June 2010 - 9 January 2011). All the photos of the rooms of the Castello di Rivoli were taken by Paolo Pellion.
2 G. Paolini in the preface to the book containing the plates.
• First plate: portrait of Luigi Pirandello, unknown source.
• Second plate: portrait of Raymond Roussel taken by Bernhard Wagner, 1910; reproduction from François Caradec, Vie de Raymond Roussel (1977-1933) (Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert éditeur, 1972), p. 96 (“Raymond Roussel, Carlsbad, 1910”).
• Third plate: portrait of Marcel Duchamp, unknown source.
• Fourth plate: portrait of Lucio Fontana, unknown source.
• Fifth plate: portrait of Fausto Melotti, unknown source.
• Sixth plate: Giorgio de Chirico, Autoritratto in costume, 1953, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm, private collection.
• Seventh plate: portrait of Italo Calvino, unknown source.
• Eighth plate: portrait of Salvador Dalí, unknown source; figure viewed from behind: Salvador Dalí, Ma femme nue regardant son propre corps devenir marche, trois vertèbres d’une colonne, ciel et architecture, 1945, oil on wood, 61 x 52 cm, private collection.
• Ninth plate: portrait of Fernando Pessoa, unknown source.
• Background images: view of exhibition rooms of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin taken by Paolo Pellion, 2010.
| 2019 | Paris, Librairie Marian Goodman, Giulio Paolini, 15 March - 22 May. |
| 2019 | Turin, Noire Gallery, Giulio Paolini. Promemoria, 12 April - 10 June. |
| 2020-21 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Giulio Paolini. “Le Chef-d’œuvre inconnu”, 15 October 2020 - 31 January 2021, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 78, col. repr. pp. 32-33 (exhibition view), 56, referred to in the text by M. Beccaria pp. 58, 61. |
| • | G. Paolini, Nove apparizioni..., followed by nine notes associated with the plates making up the book. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. p. 293 (exhibition view Rivoli 2020). |
