Solitaire, 2004
GPE-0108
Die-cut photo print and collage mounted in plexiglas case
37 x 30 x 6 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso, centre: “Solitaire / Giulio Paolini / 2004”
Autograph numbering on the verso, centre
12 in Arabic numerals from 1/12 to 12/12
4 in Roman numerals from I/IV to IV/IV
Marco Noire Editore, Turin
The work can be installed on the wall or placed on a support surface (white plinth, table, shelf, mantel, or other types of furnishing).
The plexiglas case encloses a photograph of the artist's right hand as it holds several blank sheets1; the photographic print is die-cut at the centre, in the area corresponding to the thumb, so that emerging from the rectangular cut-out is a small blank rectangle. Other details of the same image are applied all around the photograph in random order.
The artist's hand is captured in its "everyday" work (moving, holding, overlapping some sheets). In Paolini's own words: "The presence of the hand, the sheets that are still blank: this is the itinerary that reveals all that will make up the work, that is, its own path before reaching its fullfilment. The path of the hand without the work knowing".2
The multiple represents a revisitation of the theme formulated for the first time in the print with the same title made in 1975 (GPE-0016).
1 The photograph appeared for the first time in a work on paper from 1995 (GPC-0905), while in 2010 it was the subject of another work on paper (GPC-1179).
2 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2007), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 [Milan: Skira editore, 2008], cat. no. 803, p. 823.
| 2004-05 | Rome, Galleria dell’Oca, Giulio Paolini. Carte segrete, 5 November 2004 - 10 January 2005, cited in the checklist of exhibited works n. pag., not repr. |
| 2015-16 | Boston, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Equal Dimensions, 12 December 2015 - 30 January 2016; edition 12/12. |
| 2018 | Brescia, Museo di Santa Giulia, Percorsi paralleli. Collezione Mario Trevisan, 15 May - 2 September; edition 1/12. |
| 2019 | Turin, Noire Gallery, Giulio Paolini. Promemoria, 12 April - 10 June. |
| 2023 | Soliera (Modena), Castello Campori, Il linguaggio delle immagini. Fotografia in Italia tra gli anni 80 e 90, 7 October 2023 - 7 January 2024; edition 1/12. |
| 2025 | Boston, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Giulio Paolini: Paths, 21 June - 18 July; edition 12/12. |
| • | 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. 109, col. repr. |
| • | Carte Noire. Noire Editions 1980/2015 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016), repr. n. pag. |
