Trompe-l’œil, 1976
GPE-0025
Lithograph
34.8 x 24.8 cm
Signed and dated on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini 1976”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
75 in Arabic numerals from 1/75 to 75/75
25 in Roman numerals from I/XXV to XXV/XXV
Studio Marconi, Milan
Samuele Villa, Muggiò (Monza e Brianza)
This print is part of the portfolio titled Studio Marconi 1966-1976, produced by Studio Marconi, Milan, on the occasion of its tenth anniversary. The portfolio includes thirteen works conceived by Valerio Adami, Mario Ceroli, Gianni Colombo, Lucio Del Pezzo, Bruno Di Bello, Giulio Paolini, Gianfranco Pardi, Emilio Scanavino, Emilio Tadini, Giuseppe Uncini, Enrico Baj, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and Franco Vaccari.
Originally, the print was contained, along with twelve other prints, in a yellow hardback portfolio with a pocket inside, in soft black slipcase, closed format 35.5 x 25.5 cm; cover with titles in black (title, authors). Colophon printed on the inside pocket, at the bottom.
Includes information regarding the works included in the portfolio (authors, techniques, and printers), the print run, context, place and date it was printed (Milan, October 1976). Numbering at the bottom.
The central diagram – taken from a book about museology – illustrates the hypothetical gaze at 360 degrees of a viewer situated in a display space. The image multiplied six times all around – the copies reduced in size are arranged so that they correspond to the six rectangles represented in the space – amplify, in the manner of a theorem, the all-around utopian gaze. Hence the title, which emphasizes the optical illusion and as such points to the ambiguous and illusory dimension of the representation. The title also transforms the exhibition space into a labyrinth of mirrors, where the gaze is reflected in the act itself of gazing.
The print is based on the photographic version with the same name made during the previous year (GPC-0413). The same iconographic source appears in two variations on the same theme with the same title produced in December 1976 (GPC-0446, GPC-0447), as well as in two other works on paper, both untitled and dated to 1995 and 1998 respectively (GPC-1992, GPC-0978).
Image from Michael Brawne, Il museo oggi. Architettura Restauro Ordinamento (Milan: Edizioni di Comunità, 1965), p. 181 (Herbert Bayer, “Diagramma di un’esposizione”, 1939).
| 1976 | Brescia, Banco (Galleria Massimo Minini), Giulio Paolini, 4-30 December. |
| 1977 | Mannheim, Mannheim Kunstverein, Giulio Paolini, 31 July - 28 August, not repr. |
| 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. 26). |
| 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. 26). |
| 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. 26). |
| 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. 26). |
| 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. 26). |
| 2002 | Paris, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Impressions graphiques. L’œuvre graphique de Giulio Paolini 1967-2000, 23 April - 21 May, no catalogue. |
| 2004 | Copenhagen, The Royal Library, The Gallery, The Significance of Visibility, 27 May - 15 August, no catalogue. |
| 2008-09 | Siegen, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Blickmaschinen oder wie Bilder entstehen. Die zeitgenössische Kunst schaut auf die Sammlung Werner Nekes, 23 November 2008 - 10 May 2009, touring to: Budapest, Kunsthalle Budapest and C3 Center for Culture & Communication Foundation (Pillanatgépek), 20 June - 23 August 2009; Siviglia, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (Máquinas de Mirar), 17 September - 22 November 2009, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 289, repr. p. 23; artist’s proof. |
| • | G. Paolini, La verità in quattro righe e novantacinque voci, edited by S. Risaliti (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1996), p. 75, entry “Esposizione (universale)”. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 26, repr. (erroneously dated “1977”). |
| • | G. Paolini, La verità in quattro righe e novantacinque voci, edited by S. Risaliti (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1996), repr. as a faded background image to the entry for "Reproduction" pp. 74-75. |
| • | Divina Mimesis. Un omaggio di Giulio Paolini, Rosemarie Trockel e Cy Twombly a Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante e Pier Paolo Pasolini, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Villa Poniatowski, 2005, repr. p. 24 (artist’s proof). |
| • | R. Cuomo, Giulio Paolini. Lo spazio, 1967. In collezione 4 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), p. 40, not repr. (reproduction of the original work on paper p. 45). |
