Locus Solus, 1975
GPE-0020
Silkscreen on wood
36 x 36 x 2 cm
Signed and dated on the verso, centre: “Giulio Paolini / 1975”
Autograph numbering on the verso, centre
64 in Arabic numerals from 1/64 to 64/64
7 artist’s proofs in Arabic numerals from 1/7 (p.a.) to 7/7 (p.a.)
Edizioni Multipli, Turin
The multiple is part of the production of multiplied art by the Galleria Multipli, Turin – founded in 1970 by Giorgio Persano and active until 1976 – made in close collaboration with exponents of the Arte povera and Conceptual art movements.
Havana cardboard box with flaps, blank, closed format 37 x 37 x 3 cm.
The work can be arranged either horizontally, on the support surface of a plinth (or a table or other piece of furniture in a domestic context), or vertically, placed on a shelf or in a bookcase or on some other support element.
The portrait of the French artist Raymond Roussel – divided into a grid of sixty-four squares alternately dark and light in colour – is reproduced on a square wooden panel, very much like a chessboard. The title harkens back to that of a novel written by Roussel, published in 1914.
“In addition to being a sublime writer, Roussel was also an excellent connoisseur of chess tactics and strategy (a game that has always fascinated me even though I don't know the rules). Hence, the idea of associating his image to that of the chequerboard. Roussel gazes at us through the grid pattern, remaining elusive",1 Paolini remarks.
The image of the sixty-four copies of the print run, hung on the wall to produce, in turn, a chessboard, resulted in the painting with the same title made that same year (GPO-0322).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with E. Re, 2 maggio 2013.
• Portrait of Raymond Roussel from the cover of Dedicato a Raymond Roussel e alle sue “Impressioni d’Africa”, edited by Cesare Ripa di Meana and Sabina Zanon Dal Bo (Milan: Rizzoli, 1964).
• Title from Raymond Roussel, Locus Solus (Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1914).
| 1976 | Turin, Galleria Multipli, Giulio Paolini, from 23 January. |
| 1985 | Esslingen am Neckar, Galerie der Stadt, Villa Merkel, Sein und Sehnsucht. 10 italienische Künstler der 60er und 70er Jahre, 19 July - 25 August, touring to: Kassel, Kunstverein Kassel, 5-30 October, cited in the checklist of exhibited works n. pag. (with incorrect indication of the edition size “edition of 50”), repr. no. 21. |
| 1989 | Turin, Salone del Libro, Impressions graphiques. Progetti e collaborazioni editoriali di Giulio Paolini, 12-18 May, cat. no. 4 (section “Edizioni a tiratura numerata”), not repr. |
| 1990 | Kiel, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Allegorie, from 8 May, not repr. |
| 1990 | Bologna, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Villa delle Rose, Giulio Paolini. Hotel de l’Univers, 27 May - 29 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 17, repr. p. 53 (exhibition view). |
| 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. 20). |
| 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. 20). |
| 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. 20). |
| 1996 | Nice, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Arte Povera. Les multiples, 23 March - 16 June, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 37, col. repr. p. 23. |
| 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. 20). |
| 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. 20). |
| 2001 | New York, Esso Gallery, Multipli 1967-2001. Multiples, editions and books by the Arte Povera Artists, 16 January - 3 March. |
| 2002 | Nuoro, MAN Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Vis à vis. Autoritrarsi d’artista, 10 May - 30 June, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 128, repr. p. 93, col. repr. pp. 94-95 (exhibition view). |
| 2003 | Magdeburg, Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, La Poetica dell’Arte Povera, 14 September - 7 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 236, col. repr. p. 164; edition 22/64. |
| 2004 | New York, Esso Gallery, Portraits, 4 June - 31 July. |
| 2008 | Turin, Giorgio Maffei, Arte Povera. Libri d’artista, multipli, fotografie, 14-23 December, no catalogue. |
| 2014 | Berlin, Sprüth Magers, Arte Povera and "Multipli", 18 September - 8 November; edition 45/64. |
| 2018-19 | Turin, Mastio della Cittadella, 100% Italia. Cent’anni di capolavori, 21 September 2018 - 10 February 2019, col. repr. p. 609. |
| 2019 | Turin, Biasutti & Biasutti, Multipli. Anselmo, Boetti, Fabro, Gilardi, Paolini, Pascali, Penone, Pistoletto, Salvo, 21 March - 27 April. |
| 2019-20 | Milan, ICA Istituto Contemporaneo per le Arti, Arte Povera e "Multipli", Torino 1970-1975, 13 December 2019 - 2 February 2020, no catalogue; edition 45/64. |
| 2022 | Madrid, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Tracce/Huellas. Arte italiano – Obras de la galería Giorgio Persano 1971-2021, 23 February - 4 June, no catalogue, cited in the exhibition guide in the checklist of exhibited works; edition 45/64. |
| 2024-25 | Paris, Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Arte Povera, 9 October 2024 - 20 January 2025, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 151, not repr. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with B. Corà, in Giulio Paolini. Le “opere a venire”, proceedings of the meeting with the artist, Accademia di Belle Arti “Pietro Vannucci”, Perugia, 28 April 1981 (Perugia: 1982), p. 15. |
| • | G. Paolini, “I 64 ‘luoghi’...”, in Impressions graphiques. L'opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 20. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with A. Querci, “Giulio Paolini, la métaphore du damier”, in el guía. Art de l’arc méditerranéen 7, no. 2 (Barcelona), February, 1994, p. 61, in French; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 270, in Italian. |
| • | Le Stanze, exhibition catalogue, Genazzano, Castello Colonna (Florence: Centro Di, 1979), repr. n. pag. |
| • | L. Busine, Les Doublures de Giulio Paolini (Brussels: Édition Lebeer-Hossmann, 1986), repr. p. 31. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 25 p. 30. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 20, col. repr., with note by the artist I 64 “luoghi”… |
| • | G. Paolini, Locus Solus (Genoa: Edizioni della Galleria Locus Solus, 1993), repr. nos. 5-6. |
| • | A.P. Armand, ”Chess Game”, in Digraphe 67 (Paris), February, 1994, repr. p. 153. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 245. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 322 p. 331, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, “Postfazione”, in B. Satre, Giulio Paolini. Essere o non essere, 1994-95. In collezione 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), p. 69, not repr. |
