Cara Carla, 1966
GPO-0105
Dear Carla
Primed canvases
70 x 100 x 70 cm (two parts 70 x 100 cm each)
Signed, dated, and titled on the verso of one of the two canvases, upper stretcher bar, left: “Giulio Paolini 1966 / Cara Carla”
Private collection, Naples
When there is no support ceiling, the work can be installed vertically, like an open book, in the upper corner formed by the walls of the room.
• 1993, Venice, Biennale: because there was no support ceiling, the artist installed the work in the form of an open book.
Two rectangular canvases juxtaposed at the top in a room adhere to the corner created by the ceiling and the wall. The title “Dear Carla” is a tribute to Carla Lonzi, the author of the first critical texts on the artist.
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.
| 1966 | Milan, Galleria dell’Ariete, Giulio Paolini, from 15 April, cat. no. 7, not repr. |
| 1993 | Venice, Giardini di Castello, Padiglione Italia, Punti cardinali dell’arte. Biennale di Venezia: XLV Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte (exhibition: Opera Italiana, sezione: Transiti. Omaggio a Carla Lonzi), 14 June - 10 October, vol. 1, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 40, repr. p. 37. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 105 p. 132, repr. |
| • | L. Iamurri, "Dell'autenticità. Carla Lonzi, l'arte, gli artisti", in L'immagine tra materiale e virtuale, edited by F. Gallo and C. Zambianchi (Rome: Campisano Editore, 2013), p. 117, not repr. |
| • | R. Cuomo, Giulio Paolini. Lo spazio, 1967. In collezione 4 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), p. 52, repr. p. 54. |
| • | L. Iamurri, Un margine che sfugge. Carla Lonzi e l’arte in Italia 1955-1970 (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2016), p. 144, repr. p. 145. |
| • | L. Iamurri, Giulio Paolini. Teresa nella parte di Giovanna d’Arco in prigione (tavola ottica), 1969. In collezione 5 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2018), p. 22, repr. p. 27. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 113 (exhibition view Milan 1966). |
| • | F. Guzzetti, “‘Non si trattava di elaborare degli spazi astratti’: Giulio Paolini all’Ariete, 1966”, in Spazi astratti. Interferenze fra architettura e arti a Milano 1945-1970, edited by A.V. Navone, L. Tedeschi, and S. Setti (Milan: Electa, 2024), pp. 125, 130-131, repr. p. 126 (exhibition view Milan 1966). |
