Senza titolo, 1961
GPO-0012
Untitled
Paint tubes applied to wooden panel, grey packing cotton, tempera on paper applied to polyethylene
30 x 26 cm
Dedicated, signed and dated on the verso: “ad Albino, 7 dic. 1964” (upper stretcher bar), “Giulio Paolini / 1961” (lower stretcher bar, right)
Private collection, Milan
Three tubes of paint are attached to a wooden panel covered with dark grey packing cotton. The assemblage is covered with a transparent polyethylene sheet, on which, in the area corresponding to the tubes, three small tempera-painted squares of paper visualize the respective colours (green, light red, light blue).
The work is part of the study on the relationship between the support and an object that by convention is preliminary to or implicit in the realization of a painting. In the artist's words: “The goal was to come to terms with the painting vis-à-vis what the idea of the picture could stimulate or suggest. Indeed, in the sense of trying to grasp the reason for the physical presence of the picture as an object. […] It was the attempt to provide a work with a form, without the disappointment of seeing it completed. Without the intimidating burden of its meaning”.1
As attested by the inscription on the verso, the artist gave the work to Albino Galvano, who visited his studio in December 1964.
1 G. Paolini interviewed by N. Orengo, in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, p. 5; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 165.
| 1971 | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Giulio Paolini, Jannis Kounellis, July. |
| 2007 | Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Collage/Collages. Dal Cubismo al New Dada, 9 October 2007 - 6 January 2008, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. VI.40 p. 340, col. repr. p. 223, referred to in the text by M.G. Messina p. 206. |
| 2018-19 | Milan, Fondazione Carriero, Giulio Paolini. Del bello ideale, 26 October 2018 - 10 February 2019, col. repr. vol. 1 pp. 136-137 (exhibition view), 152, referred to in the text by L. Skrebowski vol. 1 p. 80. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with N. Orengo in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, p. 5; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 165. |
| • | G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 22, repr. no. 6 p. 23 (with incorrect dimensions "25 x 20 cm" in the caption on p. 119); republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 100; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 8 (with incorrect dimensions "25 x 20 cm" in the caption on p. 159). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. La Casa di Lucrezio, exhibition catalogue, Spoleto, Palazzo Rosari Spada (Casalecchio di Reno: Grafis Edizioni, 1984), repr. p. 11. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), repr. p. 59. |
| • | A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 287, not repr. |
| • | Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today, exhibition catalogue, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2008, p. 86, col. repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 12 p. 56, col. repr. |
| • | E. Volpato, "L’Île enchantée. La visione è cieca", in E. Franz et al., Giulio Paolini. Vedo e non vedo. In tema 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), p. 62, not repr. |
| • | E. Trincherini, Giulio Paolini. Delfo (IV), 1997. In collezione 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2015), p. 40, col. repr. p. 42. |
| • | J. Meinhardt, Giulio Paolini. Senza titolo, 1961. In collezione 3 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2015), p. 12, col. repr. p. 14. |
| • | I. Bernardi, "Giulio Paolini 1963. Un autore (ancora) sconosciuto", in Arte italiana 1960-1964. Identità culturale, confronti internazionali, modelli americani, edited by F. Fergonzi and F. Tedeschi, proceedings of the study day promoted by Museo del Novecento and Gallerie d’Italia, Milan, 25 October 2013 (Milan: Scalpendi Editore, 2017), p. 40, not repr. |
| • | F. Fergonzi, Una nuova superficie. Jasper Johns e gli artisti italiani 1958-1966 (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2019), p. 184, col. repr. 182. |
