Del bello intelligibile, 1980
GPE-0031
On Intelligible Beauty
Zincograph and pencil inscription
Fabriano Rosaspina
99 x 70 cm
Signed on the recto, bottom centre: “G. P.”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom centre
27 in Arabic numerals from 1/27 to 27/27
9 in Roman numerals from I/X to X/X
Each portfolio contains a different group of sheets, which are identical in terms of the subject printed, but differ as concerns the autograph inscription below the image: the 27 portfolios in Arabic numerals each contain three sheets, while the 9 portfolios in Roman numerals each include nine sheets. In total both the portfolios in Arabic numerals and the ones in Roman numerals include 81 sheets, each with a different inscription.
Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome
Antonio Sannino, Rome
The print is part of the portfolio Paolini Patella Pistoletto, commissioned from the artist by the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, directed at the time by Carlo Bertelli. The portfolio includes works by Giulio Paolini, , Luca Maria Patella, and Michelangelo Pistoletto. Bertelli's initiative inaugurated the Roman institute's opening up to contemporary art: in view of the Anno Piranesiano, celebrated in 1978 to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Paolini, Patella and Pistoletto were invited to create a work freely inspired by the engraved copper works held at the Calcografia Nazionale. The project began in 1977 and was completed in 1980.
Includes information regarding the dates of conception and publication, edition size, the works of the individual artists (title and technique), printers, type of paper, and conservation of the matrices in the archives of the Calcografia.
Text by the artist, Il progetto dell’incisione..., referring to the subject of the print (from C. Bertelli, “Progetto di una cartella”, in Grafica grafica 1-4 [Rome], December, 1977, p. 33, with omission of the last two paragraphs).
The image that makes up the print reproduces the ensemble of eighty-one black and white plates illustrating the Catalogo generale delle stampe tratte dai rami incisi posseduti dalla Calcografia Nazionale, published by the Libreria dello Stato, Rome, in 1953. The close-knit mosaic, which is practically illegible, is made up of eighty-one regular pieces arranged in a grid; each piece illustrates one or more plates in the Catalogue, reduced in size and proportion. The autograph inscription at the bottom of the image refers to the title of one of the plates reproduced; the title is different in each copy of the print, so that the overall print run of eighty-one copies traces over the titles of all the illustrated plates, recomposing the mosaic of minuscule images in words.
The print is part of the group of works having the same theme titled Del bello intelligibile, made between 1978 and 1982 (cf. in particular the inaugural work, GPO-0401). Inspired by the yearning for a sublime register of the universal itinerary of art history, the cycle of works breaks up the vision of the work in a multitude of illegible images. In regard to the intelligibility of beauty – the title of the cycle comes from Plotinus (Enneads, V: 8) – Paolini writes: “Intelligibility is a window through which the work of art looks but that then seems to partially close immediately afterwards or at least not open completely”.1 In this sense, the difference between the mysterious titles and the enigmatic images offers an expression to the impossibility of defining and representing a subject through language in absolute terms.
1 G. Paolini, La verità in quattro righe e novantacinque voci (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1996), p. 103 (under “Intelligibilità”).
• Images from Catalogo generale delle stampe tratte dai rami incisi posseduti dalla Calcografia Nazionale (Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1953).
• Title from Plotinus, Enneads (V, 8).
| 1980 | Rome, Istituto Nazionale per la grafica, Calcografia, Paolini, Patella, Pistoletto, 26 March - 5 May, repr. on cover (plate La piazza del popolo) and pp. 11-22, referred to in the text by C. Bertelli p. 5, text by the artist Il progetto dell’incisione... p. 10. |
| 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. 30, erroneously dated “1978”). |
| 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. 30, erroneously dated “1978”). |
| 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. 30, erroneously dated “1978”). |
| 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. 30, erroneously dated “1978”). |
| 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. 30, erroneously dated “1978”). |
| 2001 | Milan, Association Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese, Impressions Graphiques. L’opera grafica di Giulio Paolini, 1967-2000, 17 May - 22 June, not repr. |
| 2007 | Rome, Calcografia, Gli anni ’60 e ’70 alla Calcografia, 19 April - 17 June, not repr. |
| • | G. Paolini, “Il progetto dell’incisione...”, in Grafica grafica 1-4 (Rome), December, 1977, p. 33; republished with omission of the last two paragraphs in the text sheet included with the portfolio; Paolini, Patella, Pistoletto, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Istituto Nazionale per la grafica, Calcografia, 1980, p. 10; Impressions graphiques. L'opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 30. |
| • | C. Bertelli, “Progetto di una cartella”, in Grafica grafica 1-4 (Rome), December, 1977, pp. 32, 33 (text by the artist Il progetto dell’incisione…), repr. (detail). |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 30, repr. (edition La Piazza del Popolo, erroneously dated “1978”), with text by the artist L’immagine è costituita… (taken from Il progetto dell’incisione…). |
| • | A. Mercanti, La Calcografia tra museo e laboratorio. Gli anni Sessanta e Settanta nei documenti d’archivio (Rome: Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica and Palombi Editori, 2007), pp. 72-74, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 401 p. 408, not repr. |
