Atlante, 1966
GPO-0113
Atlas
Oil and photo emulsion on canvas, nylon thread
210 x 210 cm (three parts: 150 x 150 cm, 50 x 50 cm, 13.5 x 13.5 cm)
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the larger canvas, upper centre: "Giulio Paolini / Atlante / 1966"
Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin
Gift of the artist, 14 December 2004, archive no. GPO-0113
Dropping straight down to the centre of a large canvas in a tilted position is a smaller square canvas hanging from a nylon thread. At the centre of this second canvas is a third one, also in a tilted position, which reproduces an upside-down image of the author holding a blank canvas. The whole work is painted in light blue-grey oil paint with sweeping horizontal brushwork, and clearly visible dripping. Both the cartographic meaning of the title (“Atlas”) and the cerulean hue recalling the sky situate the author-work binomial within a boundless extension, conceptually close to the circularity of Capitemi! (GPO-0112).
Portrait of Giulio Paolini taken by Francesco Aschieri, 1965.
| 1967 | Turin, Teatro Stabile, Sala delle Colonne, Proposte 1. Giulio Paolini, 2 March, no catalogue. |
| 1976 | Parma, Palazzo della Pilotta, Sala delle Scuderie, Giulio Paolini, 11 March - 21 April, not repr. |
| 1987 | Turin, Galleria Giorgio Persano, Paolini, Pistoletto, Zorio, from 23 January. |
| 1991 | Vienna, Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Bildlicht. Malerei zwischen Material und Immaterialität, 3 May - 7 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 343, col. repr. p. 293 (with incorrect date “1967”). |
| 2003 | Milan, Fondazione Prada, Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, 29 October - 18 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 401, col. repr. p. 143 (with incorrect date “1967”). |
| • | G. Celant, "Arte Povera", in Arte Povera, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Galleria de’ Foscherari, 1968, p. 6, not repr.; republished in G. Celant, Arte Povera. Storie e protagonisti / Art Povera. Histories and protagonists (Milan: Electa, 1985), p. 54, not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Werke und Schriften 1960-1980 (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1981), repr. n. pag. (exhibition view Parma 1976, erroneously dated "1967"). |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 65 (erroneously dated "1967"). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), col. repr. p. 218 (erroneously dated "1967"). |
| • | G. Di Genova, Storia dell’Arte Italiana del ‘900 per generazioni. Generazione Anni Quaranta, vol. 6.1 (Bologna: Edizioni Bora, 2007), p. 12 (erroneously dated "1967"), not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 113 p. 138-139, col. repr. |
| • | F. Fergonzi, Una nuova superficie. Jasper Johns e gli artisti italiani 1958-1966 (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2019), pp. 183-185, col. repr. p. 188. |
