Una poesia, 1966
GPO-0109
A Poem
Pencil on paper
Nine framed parts 29.7 x 21 cm each, overall dimensions 94 x 67 cm
Signed and dated on the verso of the ninth sheet, centre: “Giulio Paolini / 1966”
Private collection, Turin
The nine letters that make up the title are written in pencil on nine paper elements, placed next to each other at short and regular intervals, thus forming a rectangle: in this order, a sheet of white paper, a sheet of graph paper, a sheet of white paper with a pre-printed border, a sheet of grey card stock, a sheet of tracing paper, a sheet of legal ruled paper, a sheet of music staff paper, an envelope, a sheet of graph paper with holes along the side. Each time, the arrangement of the letters follows the position of the concerned paper element with respect to the whole (in the first element the letter is at the upper left, in the second one it is at the upper centre, and so on). The position of the letters also corresponds to what they would gradually occupy if the words "una poesia" (a poem) were placed on the text, developed at regular intervals on a single rectangular surface, akin to other variants from the same year (GPO-0107, GPO-0108).
The theme of Una poesia was formulated 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).
• | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 109 p. 135, col. repr. |