Catalogue entry

Display

The work must be mounted so that both sides are visible. Should the work be installed close to a wall it must be placed at an oblique axis with respect to that wall.

Description

The two photographs mounted verso against verso between two plexiglas shapes – held in a circular base made from the same material – represent a life-size copy of Saffo abbandonata (1857) by Giovanni Dupré.
Through the figure of Sappho, the Greek poet who lived between the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, Paolini aims to summon to the context of the art exhibition "the explicit presence of poetry (or of its myth, of Alcaeus' ‘Tenth Muse’) in the place dedicated to it”.1
The same theme was developed in three other versions: one was made during the same year (GPO-0144), and two others respectively in 1969 (GPO-0163), and in 1981 (GPO-0439).

1 G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. 2121969, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria De Nieubourg, 1969, n. pag. The attribution of the name "Tenth Muse", according to Paolini formulated by Sappho's peer Alcaeus, is taken from two previous works by the artist, Alceo and Decima musa from 1966 (GPO-0110, GPO-0111).

Sources

Giovanni Dupré, Saffo abbandonata, 1857, marble, h 140 cm, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Rome.

Exhibitions

1969	Milan, Galleria De Nieubourg, Giulio Paolini. 2121969, from 21 February, repr. (as Saffo (II)).
1970	Turin, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Conceptual Art, Arte Povera, Land Art, 12 June - 12 July, not repr.
2011-12	Naples, MADRE Museo di Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Chiesa Donnaregina Vecchia, Arte Povera più Azioni Povere 1968, 11 November 2011 - 20 February 2012, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 684, repr. no. 316 p. 389.
2016-17	Milan, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, La finestra sul cortile. Scorci di collezioni private, 23 November 2016 - 26 February 2017, cited in the checklist of exhibited works in the exhibition guide, not repr.
2018-19	Milan, Fondazione Carriero, Giulio Paolini. Del bello ideale, 26 October 2018 • 10 February 2019, col. repr. vol. 1 pp. 148-149 (exhibition view), b/n repr. vol. 1 p. 159.
2022-23	Paris, Jeu de Paume and LE BAL, Renverser ses yeux. Autour de l’arte povera 1960-1975: photographie, film, vidéo, 11 October 2022 - 29 January 2023, touring to: Milan, Triennale Milano, 17 May - 3 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 396, col. repr. p. 225; in the booklet published on the occasion of the exhibition in Milan: col. repr. pp. 29, 30 (exhibition views).

Artist’ writings

•	G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. 2121969, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria De Nieubourg, 1969; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 225.

Bibliography

•	C. Lonzi, Autoritratto (Bari: De Donato Editore, 1969), repr. no. 89 p. 327 (exhibition view Milan 1969 with C. Lonzi); German edition: Selbstbildnis/Autoritratto. Zur Situation der italienischen Kunst um 1967 (Bern-Berlin: Verlag Gachnang & Springer, 2000), repr. no. 89 p. 271; new Italian edition: (Milan: Et al./Edizioni, 2010), repr. no. 89 p. 250; French edition: Autoportrait, edited by G. Zapperi (Paris-Zurich: La Maison Rouge and JRP\|Ringier, 2012), repr. p. 182; ; English edition: Self-portrait (Brussels-London: Divided Publishing, 2021), repr. p. 286; new Italian edition: (Milan: La Tartaruga, 2024), repr. no. 87 p. 333 (caption p. 407).
•	T. Catalano, "Giulio Paolini 1960-1968: il sillogismo dell’immagine", in Flash Art 12 (Rome), [October], 1969, repr. n. pag.
•	Catalogo Bolaffi d’arte moderna, vol. 2: Segnalati Bolaffi 1970 (Turin: Giulio Bolaffi Editore, 1970), repr. p. 115 (as "Saffo (II)"; installation in the artist’s studio).
•	G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 75, repr. no. 69 p. 76 (exhibition view Milan 1969); republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 252; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019).
•	G. Dorfles, Ultime tendenze nell’arte oggi. Dall’Informale al Neo-oggettuale. Nuova edizione aggiornata e ampliata (Milan: Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, 1973), repr. no. 124 (idem in the 19th edition Milan 2003).
•	Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 102 (exhibition view Milan 1969).
•	ProspectRETROSPECT. Europa 1946-1976, exhibition catalogue, Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1976), repr. p. 140 (exhibition view Turin 1970).
•	Coerenza in coerenza. Dall’Arte Povera al 1984, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Mole Antonelliana (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1984), repr. p. 147 (exhibition view Turin 1970).
•	G. Celant, Arte Povera. Storie e protagonisti / Art Povera. Histories and protagonists (Milan: Electa, 1985), repr. p. 140 (exhibition view Milan 1969); idem in the reprint included in G. Celant, Arte Povera. Storia e storie (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2011).
•	M. Unterdörfer, Die Rezeption der Antike in der Postmoderne: der Gipsabguss in der italienischen Kunst der siebziger und achtziger Jahre (Weimar: VDG Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 1998), p. 180, cat. no. 23 p. 139, not repr.
•	Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), repr. pp. 225 (as "Saffo (II)"), 274 (exhibition view Milan 1969).
•	A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 336, not repr.
•	A. Rabottini, "La passione trasparente. Note sull’arte di Giulio Paolini, emergenze recenti ecc.", in Giulio Paolini. Fuori programma, exhibition catalogue, Bergamo, GAMeC Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2006), repr. p. 35 (exhibition view Milan 1969).
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 160 p. 180, repr. (exhibition view Milan 1969).
•	L. Conte, Materia, corpo, azione. Ricerche artistiche processuali tra Europa e Stati Uniti 1966-1970 (Rome-Milan: MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo and Mondadori Electa, 2010), p. 249, not repr.
•	"Hypothesis for an Exhibition", exhibition catalogue, New York, Dominique Lévy Gallery, 2014, repr. p. 113 (exhibition view Milan 1969).
•	L. Iamurri, "Ni pauvreté, ni théâtre: les silences de Carla Lonzi dans Autoritratto", in Les Cahiers su Musée national d’art moderne 143 (Paris), Spring, 2018, repr. p. 28 (exhibition view Milan 1969, with Carla Lonzi in the foreground).
•	F. Belloni, "‘Incontro al museo’ (1968) e ‘La ciminiera dorica’ (1976). Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco su Giulio Paolini", in Ricerche di storia dell’arte 124 (Rome), 2018, pp. 91, 97 note 37, not repr.
•	Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Carriero (London: Koenig Books, 2019), repr. vol. 2 pp. 28-29 (during the opening of Paolini's solo exhibition in Milan, 1969).
•	C. Casero, "Dalla citazione al riuso. Alcune pratiche artistiche di marca concettuale negli anni Sessanta e Settanta in Italia", in Cinegrafie 16 (Bologna), [December], 2019, p. 159, col. repr. p. 161.
•	G. Paolini, “A come Accademia”, in Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. p. 18 (exhibition view Naples 2021), ripr. p. 118 (during the opening of Paolini's solo exhibition in Milan, 1969).
•	S.M.S. Cammarata, “Strappare una foto. Le Cariatidi di Giulio Paolini”, in Studi di scultura. Età moderna e contemporanea 6, no. 6 (Naples), 2024, p. 288, col. repr. p. 289 (exhibition view Naples 2011).

Saffo, 1968