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GPE-0039

Caryatid

Lithograph

50 x 69.5 cm

Signed and dated on the recto, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini 1982”

Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom left

120 in Arabic numerals from 1/120 to 120/120
30 in Roman numerals from I/XXX to XXX/XXX

Unione Piemontese Sviluppo Edilizio, Turin

Marco Noire Editore, Turin

The print was commissioned from the artist by the Unione Piemontese Sviluppo Edilizio (UPSE), Turin, as a Christmas gift for its members.

Off-white sleeve, closed format 72 x 50.5 cm; cover with titles in grey (author, title).

Against the background of a space in perspective, outlined in pencil, a male figure holds the capital of a Corinthian column that hides his face, while his left foot stands on the plinth of a hypothetical column of which all we can glimpse are the extremities. The figure leaves behind itself a streak of photographic fragments of the sky and a landscape horizon, complementary to the details of the incomplete column. Together they are the clues of an ideal or exemplary dimension that the male figure attempts to trace.
The title and the figure connect the print to two large-scale works with the same title, made in 1979 and 1980 (GPO-0418, GPO-0422).
The original collage on which the print is based is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of works on paper at number GPC-1678.

Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, Jeune homme, marchant, de profil à droite, early 19th century, black chalk and stump with white highlights on blue paper, 59.3 x 36.1 cm, Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne; reproduction from Dessins français du XIXe siècle du Musée Bonnat à Bayonne. LXIX exposition du Cabinet des Dessin, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Musée du Louvre (Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1979), p. 82, plate 112.

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. 40).
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. 40).
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. 40).
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. 40).
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. 40).
Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 40, col. repr. (artist’s proof).
Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), col. repr. n. pag. (artist’s proof).
Entry by Bettina Della Casa and Maddalena Disch, 11/07/2025