Senza titolo (Man Ray), 1976
GPE-0021
Untitled (Man Ray)
Silkscreen and collage
50 x 36 cm
1975 version: no inscriptions
1976 version: signed and dated on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini 1976”
1975 version: stamp numbering on the colophon of the portfolio
1976 version: autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
1975 version: 100 in Arabic numerals from 1/100 to 100/100 plus 20 H.C. in Roman numerals from I/XX to XX/XX
1976 version: 100 in Arabic numerals from 1/100 to 100/100
Luciano Anselmino, Milan
1975 version: Desjobert, Fequet et Baudier, Jacomet, Marquet, and Georges Visat, Paris; box and collage by Bernard Duval, Paris
The print is originally part of the portfolio-book La Logique Assassine, commissioned by the art dealer Luciano Anselmino, dedicated to Man Ray, and produced and edited in Paris on July 10, 1975 by Lucien Treillard. The portfolio includes a lithograph by Man Ray, a text by Henry Miller, and nineteen prints made using different techniques and in different sizes conceived by Hans Bellmer, Sandy [Alexander] Calder, R. Sebastian Matta, Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Meret Oppenheim, Giulio Paolini, Roland Penrose, Hans Richter, Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Ruscha, Graham Sutherland, Suzuo Takygouchi, and Andy Warhol.
In 1976 Anselmino reproposes some of the prints in the original portfolio as independent prints including Paolini's work.
Hence the existence of two distinct versions: the one from 1975, included in the original portfolio-book, without inscriptions, and the one numbered, signed, and dated “1976”.
1975 version: originally, the print, along with eighteen other graphic works by various artists, was contained in a blue cloth-covered box, 54 x 39 cm; cover with the reproduction of a work by Andy Warhol representing a repeated portrait of Man Ray. The box contained Man Ray's lithograph titled La logique assassine, a title-page, a text by Henry Miller, the colophon and a plexiglas container, including (presumably) the works by the various artists, wrapped in a flannel cloth bound with twine and sealed, accompanied by a rectangular pink label featuring the title “ENIGME III / ou bien le souvenir de / MAN RAY” and the names of the nineteen artists involved.
1975 version: includes information regarding the edition size, publisher, printers, place and date of printing (Paris, 10 July 1975). Stamp numbering bottom centre.
The two eye shapes, applied at the top of the sheet to simulate a gaze, feature, impressed in black against a silver background, the name (left) and surname (right) of the American artist Man Ray.
The faceless “portrait” is purely nominal: the enunciation of the name replaces the subject's physiognomy. At the same time, the name and surname identify the author of the gaze turned toward the viewer.
In the artist's own words: "The name 'Man Ray' is a synecdoche, recalling a portrait of the artist through the two words. I am interested in attributing to the name the role of the organ of vision of a missing face. Man Ray thus seems to be looking at us through his name".1
The print harkens back to a theme that was developed starting in 1967 in some of the works on paper, which are mainly distinguished by the different background of the two shapes and the doubling of the name from one eye to another (GPC-0086, GPC-0181, GPC-0182, GPC-2055, GPC-2064).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with I. Bernardi, 29 October 2012.
| 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. 21); 1976 version. |
| 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. 21); 1976 version. |
| 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. 21); 1976 version. |
| 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. 21); 1976 version. |
| 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. 21); 1976 version. |
| 2001 | New York, Esso Gallery, Multipli 1967-2001. Multiples, editions and books by the Arte Povera Artists, 16 January - 3 March; 1976 version. |
| 2002 | Paris, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Impressions graphiques. L’œuvre graphique de Giulio Paolini 1967-2000, 23 April - 21 May, no catalogue; 1976 version. |
| 2006 | Turin, Galleria “èArte”, Paolini, Penone, Pistoletto, 7 February - 18 March; 1976 version. |
| 2022 | Paris, Librairie Marian Goodman, Giulio Paolini. Printed Editions and Multiples (1967-1977), 6 October - 26 November; ; 1976 version, artist’s proof. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 21, repr. (1976 version, edition 97/100). |
| • | W. Guadagnini, ”L'uomo raggio, ovvero il maestro delle luci” in Man Ray. Opere 1912-1975, exhibition catalogue, Genoa, Palazzo Ducale (Milan: Dario Cimorelli Editore, 2023), p. 21 (reference to the 1975 version), not repr. |
