Saffo, 1968-69
GPO-0163
Sappho
Photo prints mounted between shaped plexiglas sheets, plexiglas stand
188 x 103 x 60 cm
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Acquired in 1980, inventory no. B727
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.
The two photographs mounted verso against verso between two plexiglas shapes – held in a circular base made from the same material – represent a copy of Sappho at the Column (1857) by James Pradier, enlarged so that it is life-size with respect to the figure.
Through the figure of Sappho, the Greek poet who lived between the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, Paolini aims to summon "the explicit presence of poetry (or of its myth, from Alcaeus' ‘Tenth Muse’) in the place dedicated to her”.1
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).
James Pradier, Sapho à la colonne, 1848, bronze, h 44 cm.
| 2008-09 | Augsburg, Staatsgalerie Moderne Kunst im Glaspalast, Von Balkenhol bis Wachter – Skulpturen aus der Sammlung der Pinakothek der Moderne, 22 May 2008 - March 2009, cited in the checklist of exhibited works in the exhibition brochure. |
| • | G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. 2121969, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria De Nieubourg, 1969, n. pag. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 163 p. 183, repr. |
| • | S. Rebora, "Un'isola a Venezia. Il Capricorno di Bruna Aickelin", in Artribune 3, nos. 13-14 (Rome), May-August, 2013, p. 50, not repr. |
