Les fausses confidences, 1980
GPE-0038
Lithograph
70 x 50 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the recto: “Les fausses confidences” (bottom centre), “Giulio Paolini 1980” (bottom right)
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left
75 in Arabic numerals from 1/75 to 75/75
Franco Debenedetti, Turin
The print was commissioned from the artist by Franco Debenedetti – CEO of Olivetti at the time – as a personal Christmas gift.
The photographic reproduction of the painting L’Indifférent (1717) by Jean-Antoine Watteau, placed on the drawing of a pile of quadrangles (primed canvases or blank sheets) is cut at the bottom, so that he seems to be on stage, against a theatre backdrop, as he demonstrates his skill as an artificer-magician.
The white square that the protagonist is intent on moving is identical to the quadrangles in the pile that serves as a podium or stage: both allude to the potential works that the author – represented here by a stand-in in the role of an actor – always tries to glimpse on the horizon of his gaze.
The theatrical setting and the taste for the scenic fiction are emphasized in the French title, which evokes the comedy written by Pierre de Marivaux in 1737, in which the power of the language conditions being and appearing in a basic ambivalence.
The print harkens back to some of the works on paper from the same year (cf. GPC-0553, GPC-1759), together with which it represents one of the first formulations of the iconographic theme further analysed in 1983 in the large-scale work (GPO-0506) and in the portfolio with the same title (GPE-0042).
• Jean-Antoine Watteau, L’Indifférent, 1716, oil on wood, 25 x 19 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris; reproduction from L’opera completa di Watteau. Classici dell’arte 21 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1968), plate XI.
• Title from the comedy by Pierre de Marivaux, Les fausses confidences, 1737.
| 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. 38). |
| 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. 38). |
| 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. 38). |
| 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. 38). |
| 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. 38). |
| • | A. Griseri, Lungo le strade del Settecento. Le identità ritrovate (Turin: Centro studi di Torino, 1990), p. 93, col. repr. (artist’s proof, among the images of unrelated works). |
| • | Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 38, col. repr. (artist’s proof). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 506 p. 516, not repr. |
| • | Libro / Opera. Viaggio nelle pagine d'artista. La collezione di Danilo Montanari / A journey into the artist's pages. Danilo Montanari's collection, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Aula Magna della Biblioteca Universitaria (Ravenna: Danilo Montanari Editore, 2011), col. repr. p. 148 (artist’s proof, with incorrect caption referred to the 1983 portfolio with the same title included in the exhibition). |
