Una poesia, 1966
GPO-0107
A Poem
Ink on paper, primed canvas, white drawing pins, primed canvas
28 x 26 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso, centre, on a white paper square: “Giulio Paolini / Una poesia / 1966”
Private collection, Turin
From 17 October 2000 to 7 November 2001 on loan at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz
In black ink and at regular intervals the letters in the title of the work are copied onto a sheet of white paper pinned to a primed canvas of the same size.
Ever since its early use here, writing in Paolini's work tends not to be just an image of itself, but a drawing as well. The nine equidistant letters that spell out the words "una poesia" (a poem) articulate the surface of the sheet akin to the units of a designed pattern; at the same time, the arrangement of the letters traces the grid of a spatial metric.
The same theme was formulated in two other variants from the same year (GPO-0108, GPO-0109), in at least six variants on paper executed between 1966 and 1985 (GPC-0080, GPC-0113, GPC-0114, GPC-0115, GPC-0116, GPC-0230), and in a print edition made in 1967 (GPE-0002).
| 2000-01 | Vaduz, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, [opening exhibition], 12 November 2000 - 20 May 2001, no catalogue. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with C. Lonzi, in C. Lonzi, Autoritratto (Bari: De Donato Editore, 1969), pp. 193-194; in the reprint (Milan: Et al./Edizioni, 2010), p. 146; English edition (Brussels-London: Divided Publiishing, 2021), p. 172. |
| • | G. Paolini, “Note di lavoro”, in the version published in Id., Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), p. 43, new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), p. 69. |
| • | Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, edited by F. Malsch (Vaduz: Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, 2004), p. 100, not repr. |
| • | Hypothesis for an Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, New York, Dominique Lévy Gallery, 2014, repr. p. 93. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 107 p. 134, col. repr. |
| • | 100% Italia. Cent’anni di capolavori, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Museo Ettore Fico, Mastio della Cittadella and other venues in Biella and Vercelli (Turin: Edizioni Museo Ettore Fico, 2018), repr. p. 608. |
