Senza titolo (Duetto), 1980
GPE-0036
Untitled (Duo)
Aquatint
Magnani Pescia
Plate 50 x 35 cm folded, 50 x 70 cm open
Signed and dated on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini 1980”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
20 in Arabic numerals from 1/20 to 20/20
Galleria A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, Rome
Laboratorio calcografico di Mauro Salvi, Rome
The print is part of the portfolio Duetto produced on the occasion of the exhibition Costantino Dardi. Giulio Paolini. “Duetto”, held from 29 September to 24 October 1980 at the Galleria A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, Rome. The portfolio includes five acquatints by Costantino Dardi and one by Giulio Paolini. The exhibition represents the second event in the exhibition cycle of the “Duetti” (Duets), curated from February 1980 by Francesco Moschini, the concept being to compare an architect with a visual artist.
Originally, the print was contained in a double-sided black cardboard folder, closed format 51 x 31.5 cm; cover with titles in white (authors, title, curator, publisher), which includes five plates by Costantino Dardi, the folded plate by Paolini, and the colophon.
Includes information regarding the editor, printing technique, measurements, type of paper, edition size, and printer.
The dual and incongruous view of a colonnade consists of a kaleidoscopic game of doubled perspectives, developed across the double page of the print folded in the middle.
The two larger photographic reproductions, identical to each another and placed so that they touch, represent a perspectival view toward a park from a colonnade suggested by the two lateral columns in the foreground. The central part of these two images is hidden by the photographic reproduction of another colonnade, torn in two, turned upside down, and one reduced with respect to the other. The smaller part in turn overlaps half of a reduced upside-down copy of the view of the park. The montage of the central images is repeated mirror-like from one half to the other of the print. The intricate composition generates a perspectival illusion, made evident by the staggered frame created by the white edge around the image of the central colonnade.
The theme of the double – the vertigo of two – is closely linked to the mirror and its multiplication. From one to two, towards infinity: the duplication underlies a potentially limitless repetition. One column, two columns, a colonnade suggest a perspective that is oriented towards a distant vanishing point to infinity.
The same iconographic motifs can be found in other works on paper, made between 1976 and 1980 (GPC-0427, GPC-0428, GPC-0370, GPC-0550).
The original collage on which the print is based is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of works on paper at number GPC-0551.
View of two colonnades of the Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin.
| 1980 | Rome, Galleria A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, Costantino Dardi. Giulio Paolini. “Duetto”, 29 September - 24 October. |
| 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. 36). |
| 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. 36). |
| 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. 36). |
| 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. 36). |
| 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. 36). |
| 2001 | Milan, Association Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese, Impressions Graphiques. L’opera grafica di Giulio Paolini, 1967-2000, 17 May - 22 June, not repr. |
| • | Costantino Dardi. Testimonianze e riflessioni (Milan: Electa, 1992), pp. 184-189 (republication of the text written by F. Menna for the exhibition Costantino Dardi. Giulio Paolini. “Duetto”, Rome, 1980), repr. p. 184. |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 36, repr. (artist’s proof). |
| • | V. Ricciuti, “La stagione dei ‘Duetti’”, in Segno 33, no. 217 (Pescara), January-February, 2008, repr. p. 83. |
