Zero, 1966
GPO-0103
Zero
Phosphorescent paint on primed canvas
56 x 81.5 x 65 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of one of the three canvases, top: “Giulio Paolini / Zero / 1966”
Private collection, courtesy Giò Marconi, Milan
Three canvases featuring one curvilinear side are painted with phosphorescent paint and juxtaposed in the corner of a room thus forming an illusory circle. In the artist's words: “The idea is to materialize a cone of light directed towards the corner of the room – which explains why phosphorescent paint was used – in order to underscore the 'zero' moment that precedes the appearance of a figure".1
The same theme was formulated in a variant of the work made during the same year involving unprimed canvases marked with purple paint along the outer border (GPO-0104).
The work is part of the research that distinguished the artist's output in 1966. Starting from the same premise – canvases juxtaposed so that they mark the corner of a room, seen as the elementary point of origin of a space – many different optical configurations were developed, calling into play the gap between the logical assumption – the elementary and rational given – and the illogical and mutating complexity of the perception.
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2000), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2016), cat. no. 103, p. 131.
| 1966 | Turin, Galleria Notizie, Aspetti dell’avanguardia in Italia, from 4 October, cited in the checklist of exhibited works, repr. |
| 1975-76 | Messina, Fiera Campionaria Internazionale, Mediterranea 1. Incontro in Sicilia. Linee di ricerca dell’arte italiana, 19 December 1975 - 18 January 1976, not repr. |
| 2000 | Bremen, Neues Museum Weserburg, Sinn + Sinnlichkeit. Körper und Geist im Bild, 21 May - 27 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 139, col. repr. p. 93. |
| 2004 | Bordeaux, capcMusée d’art contemporain, A Angles vifs, 10 June - 26 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 83, repr. p. 69. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2000), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2016), cat. no. 103 p. 131. |
| • | Paolini: opere 1961/73, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Studio Marconi, 1973, repr. n. pag. |
| • | Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 65. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 64. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. "Una collezione ‘60/’80" (Milan: Studio Marconi, 1990), repr. p. 51. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 211. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), repr. p. 169. |
| • | A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 289, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 103 p. 131, repr. |
