Passatempo, 1998
GPE-0101
Pastime
Lithograph and silkscreen
Plate 23.5 x 23.5 cm folded, 47 x 47 cm open
Signed on the recto, bottom centre: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom centre
100 in Arabic numerals from 1/100 to 100/100
30 in Roman numerals from I/XXX to XXX/XXX
Danilo Montanari Editore, Ravenna
Grafiche Morandi, Fusignano (Ravenna)
The print is part of the production of multiplied art by the publisher Danilo Montanari, Ravenna, from 1980 to 1993 director of the Agenzia Editoriale Essegi. His catalogue of publications includes books, multiples, and graphic editions by contemporary artists created in close collaboration with the authors.
Tri-fold off-white card stock folder, closed format 33.5 x 34 cm; cover with titles in black (publishers, author, title); on the fifth page a note by the author and the colophon. Contains the folded plate, inserted at the third page between four corners.
Includes information regarding date of printing (September 1998) and edition size.
Text by the artist, Quattro fotografie..., referring to the subject of the edition.
The print is described and presented by the artist himself in a note reproduced in the folder in which it is contained: "Four photographs placed one next to the other form a square that alternates with a 90-degree rotation the positive and the negative of four details from Passatempo (1992-98).1 In that work, my gaze2 is hidden by numerous glass fragments and by an hourglass that, intact, overlaps the lenses of my eyeglasses. The overall image, in turn, is repeated seven times and alternates, with a 45-degree rotation and in a constantly decreasing and concentric pattern, each of the seven colours of the iris".
“Just like a pack of shuffled playing cards ends up hiding the identity of its own components – the artist states elsewhere – the game of the rotation and juxtaposition of the same image determines the impossibility of the deciphering of the individual elements that make it up".3
1 These are four similar but not identical photograms, taken by Attilio Maranzano at four different times during the exhibition Giulio Paolini. Esposizione Universale, Galleria degli Antichi, Sabbioneta, 1997 (cf. GPO-0706).
2 The portrait taken by Paolo Mussat Sartor fixes a moment that is by now distant, in 1971.
3 G. Paolini in conversation with B. Della Casa, April 2020.
Portraits of Giulio Paolini taken by Attilio Maranzano during the exhibition Giulio Paolini. Esposizione Universale, Galleria degli Antichi, Sabbioneta, 1997.
| 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. 11. |
| 2001 | Strasbourg, CEAAC Centre Européen d’Actions Artistiques Contemporaines, Giulio Paolini, 13 October - 23 December, no catalogue. |
| 2002 | Paris, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Impressions graphiques. L’œuvre graphique de Giulio Paolini 1967-2000, 23 April - 21 May, no catalogue. |
| 2002 | Modena, Biblioteca civica d’arte Luigi Poletti, Giulio Paolini. Pagine, 20 September - 23 November, col. repr. p. 80 (caption p. 94). |
| 2011 | Bologna, Aula Magna della Biblioteca Universitaria, Libro / Opera. Viaggio nelle pagine d'artista. La collezione di Danilo Montanari, 16 September - 12 October, col. repr. p. 160. |
| 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; artist’s proof. |
| 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. |
| 2014 | Bologna, Studio G7, Giulio Paolini. Opera grafica e collage, 20 September - 15 November. |
| • | G. Paolini, Quattro fotografie..., note to the work included with the print edition; republished without the two endnotes in Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), p. 74. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), p. 74 (text by the artist Quattro fotografie…), col. repr. p. 75. |
| • | 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. 101, col. repr. |
