Exit, 1996
GPE-0096
Lithograph
Plate 33 x 12 cm folded, 33 x 48 cm open
33 x 34 x 9 cm
Signed on the recto of the third panel, bottom: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the recto of the second panel, bottom right
40 in Arabic numerals from 1/40 to 40/40
20 in Roman numerals from I/XX to XX/XX
Exit Edizioni, Lugo (Ravenna)
Grafiche Morandi, Fusignano (Ravenna)
The print was commissioned from the artist by Alvaro Beccatini, owner of Exit Edizioni, Lugo (Ravenna), on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary. Exit Editions published books, multiples, and graphic editions by contemporary artists created in close collaboration with the authors. The name of the publishing house is from the title of a work by the Fluxus artist George Brecht.
Tri-fold grey card stock folder, closed format 33.2 x 12.7 cm; cover with titles in black (author, title); on the fifth side, the colophon. Contains the folded plate, inserted in a grey card stock folder with two vertical panels.
Includes information regarding printing technique, context of production, edition size, and date of printing (June 1996).
The plate with four sides, folded in the manner of an accordion, represents two pairs of valets, one in the foreground, the other in the middle ground, thus suggesting the depth of the field of a view in perspective. Each valet presents an alphabetical letter, so that the sequence of the four letters, from left to right, make up the name of the publishing house Exit, which the multiple pays homage to.
The construction of the image focuses on the ambiguity of the optical planes. On the one hand, the perspectival spatiality suggested by the valets and by the direction of the initial and final folds, inviting the viewer to "enter" the image. On the other, the horizontal sequence of the letters, which brings the gaze back to the two-dimensional picture plane, and the central fold that reverses the vanishing point, thus causing the gaze to "exit" from the virtual spatiality.
For the figure of the valet, introduced in 1983-84, see the portfolio Dal “Trionfo della rappresentazione (cerimoniale: l’artista è assente), 1986 (GPO-0058), and the prints Passe-partout, 1988 (GPE-0066), Phoenix, 1992 (GPE-0084), L’offerta musicale, 2008 (GPE-0118).
| 2001 | Milan, Association Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese, Impressions Graphiques. L’opera grafica di Giulio Paolini, 1967-2000, 17 May - 22 June, col. repr. pp. 18-19; edition XI/XX. |
| 2002 | Modena, Biblioteca civica d’arte Luigi Poletti, Giulio Paolini. Pagine, 20 September - 23 November, col. repr. p. 69 (caption p. 93); edition X/XX. |
| 2004 | Bologna, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Ritratto dell’editore come artista. I libri e la grafica di Alvaro Beccatini, 18 September - 17 October, no catalogue. |
| 2005 | Lugo (Ravenna), Pescherie della Rocca, Exit. Alvaro Becattini, 30 April - 15 May, col. repr. on cover and on p. 1. |
| 2007 | Bologna, MAMbo Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Vertigo. Il secolo di arte off-media da Futurismo al web, 6 May - 4 November, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 452, repr. p. 346. |
| 2013 | Ravenna, Aula Magna della Biblioteca Classense, Una biblioteca d'artista. La collezione e le edizioni di libri d'artista di Danilo Montanari, 4 May - 1 June, not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques, l’opera grafica (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 2005), update supplement 1996-2005 to the volume Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 97, col. repr. (edition IV/XX). |
