Senza titolo, 1996
GPE-0098
Untitled
Silkscreen
Plate 29.7 x 20.6 cm folded, 29.7 x 41.5 cm open
Signed on the verso, on the right: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the verso, on the right
120 in Roman numerals from I/CXX to CXX/CXX
Giulio Einaudi editore, Turin
The print was published by the Turin publisher Giulio Einaudi, on the occasion of the publication of Paolini's book titled La verità in quattro righe e novantacinque voci, edited by Sergio Risaliti.
Giulio Paolini, La verità in quattro righe e novantacinque voci, edited by Sergio Risaliti (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1996). 30 x 21 cm, 216 pages, paper binding, dust jacket by the author, in soft slipcase. Letter from Giulio Einaudi to Giulio Paolini, writings by the author associated with 95 words in alphabetical order, note by the curator, pen drawings as a backdrop to the writings, out-of-text folded plate by Paolini enclosed. Limited edition of 999 signed copies in Arabic numerals and 120 signed copies in Roman numerals; the copies in Roman numerals include the print edition.
The colophon of the book includes information regarding the date of printing (November 1996), publisher, and print run. Numbering and signature at the centre.
The plate with a black background and a fold in the middle features a blinding nebula with a white nucleus and torn margins, which is partially overlapped by a smaller nebula that is clearly outlined and recalls a solar eclipse. Dispersed all around are the torn fragments of the reproduction of a meteorite and of the same central nebula, while the images of nine drawing pins, circular in shape, evoke the planets.
The cosmic landscape recalls both the Big Bang, at the origin of the universe – which in a figurative sense is a prelude to the formation of an image that is complete in itself –, and the explosion of an absolute subject that is impossible to stop (which is what the drawing pins attempt to do).
The original collage on which the print is based is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of the works on paper at number GPC-2250.
Fragments from the advertising for fountain pens produced by the company Mecanorma.
| 2001 | Milan, Association Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese, Impressions Graphiques. L’opera grafica di Giulio Paolini, 1967-2000, 17 May - 22 June, col. repr. p. 25 (erroneously titled “La Verità”, rotated by 180 degrees). |
| 2002 | Modena, Biblioteca civica d’arte Luigi Poletti, Giulio Paolini. Pagine, 20 September - 23 November, col. repr. pp. 76-77 (caption p. 93), referred to in the text by M. Bertoni p. 15. |
| 2011-12 | Vence, Château de Villeneuve, Fondation Émile Hugues, De Man Ray à Pistoletto, chronique d'une collection en mouvement, 3 December 2011 - 8 January 2012, no catalogue. |
| • | 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. 99, col. repr. (titled “La verità (in quattro righe e novantacinque voci)” as the book in which the print is included). |
