Traits d’union, 2000
GPE-0105
Lithograph
Two plates 100 x 70 cm each
Titled on the recto of the first plate, bottom right: “Traits”, and on the recto of the second plate, bottom left: ”d’union”, signed on the recto of the second plate, bottom right: “Giulio Paolini”
Autograph numbering on the recto of the first plate, bottom left
100 in Arabic numerals from 1/100 to 100/100
10 in Roman numerals from I/X to X/X
5 H.C.
Galleria Christian Stein, Milan
Marco Noire Editore, Turin
The two plates, framed individually without a passepartout, must be arranged with a short interval between them (overall dimensions around 102 x 146 cm).
The first of the two sheets reproduces Paolini's work titled Fleischfarbe (1965, GPO-0077), in which a primed canvas, propped up against several overturned canvases in the artist's studio, features the flesh-coloured drawing of a nude female. The second sheet is instead the photographic reproduction of a sartorial atelier, with a mannequin emphasized by a frame similar to that of the painting reproduced in the first sheet. A male figure with his head in his hands is placed up close to the image of the atelier, as if it were seated on the chair reproduced in the image. Each sheet also features a drawing of canvases, propped up against each other, that in the wall installation of the print serve as “traits d’union” (links) – as the title suggests – generating a presumed continuity of the image. The figure absorbed in thought – a stand-in for the artist – thus seems set in an artist's studio, understood as the "theatre of a potential painting in the making”,1 as Paolini explains.
1 G. Paolini in conversation with B. Della Casa, 20 March 2021.
Figure: Lionello Balestrieri, Beethoven, 1900, oil on canvas, 202 x 420 cm, Museo Revoltella, Trieste.
| 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. 14-15 (incorrect reproduction, the two plates are too far apart). |
| 2002 | Biella, Museo del Territorio Biellese, Premio Biella per l’incisione 2002, 29 September - 3 November, col. repr. p. 144, entry p. 143; artist’s proof. |
| 2006 | Bergamo, GAMeC Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Giulio Paolini. Fuori programma, 6 April - 16 July, col. repr. pp. 82-83 (exhibition view). |
| 2014 | Bologna, Studio G7, Giulio Paolini. Opera grafica e collage, 20 September - 15 November. |
| • | 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. 105, 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). |
