Quam raptim ad sublimia, 1969
GPO-0184
Paint on cotton fabric
Banner 65 x 420 cm, overall dimensions variable
Studio La Città, Verona
The work was raised as a banner in an space outdoors only occasionally while it was being made. Since the 2000s, the artist has envisioned its installation exclusively indoors. The fabric is hung from a wall, with one end at a height of approximately 180-200 cm, and the other end falling to the ground freely, leaving only some of the writing visible.
Written on the strip of fabric with bronze-coloured metallic paint is the Latin phrase “Quam raptim ad sublimia” (As quickly as possible towards the sublime) etched in the marble floor of Room VIII of the new Pinacoteca Vaticana at the Vatican Museums.
The work is part of a group of works made during the same year (GPO-0183, GPO-0184, GPO-0185, GPO-0187) characterized by enigmatic Latin quotations transcribed on banners or on metal plaques, based on a paradox. As the artist explains, the Latin phrases "recited and divulged with the emphasis of a banner or a sign" actually refer "to an order of private contemplation". “The transcriptions are pronouncements, professions of faith, but also the awareness of their unrepeatability, confined as they are in an ancient language, distant from all possible verification or reappropriation”,1 Paolini remarks.
The work was raised as a banner in an space outdoors only occasionally while it was being made. Since the 2000s, the artist has envisioned its installation exclusively indoors. The fabric is hung from a wall with one end, and the other end falling to the ground freely, leaving only some of the writing visible.
The same Latin phrase was also used for a print edition made during the same year, in which it is featured on a calling card as the "professional name” after the artist's (GPE-0004).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 183 p. 198.
Quotation from the Latin phrase engraved in the marble floor of Room VIII of the new Pinacoteca Vaticana at the Vatican Museums, Vatican City State.
| 1979 | New York, Banco (Galleria Massimo Minini) c/o Hal Bromm Gallery, Alighiero Boetti, Paolo Icaro, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Michele Zaza, 10 March - 7 April. |
| 1993 | Salzburg, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Utopia. Arte italiana 1950-1993, 24 July • 31 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 68 p. 137, col. repr. p. 103. |
| 2005 | Chicago, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Calzolari, Fontana, Garutti, Manzoni, Paolini, Pistoletto, Spalletti, 29 April - 4 June. |
| 2012 | New York, Leonard Hutton Galleries, The Memory of White, 18 October - 30 November, col. repr. p. 27 (installation view at Studio La Città, Verona). |
| 2016 | Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Imagine. Nuove immagini nell’arte italiana 1960-1969, 23 April - 19 September, col. repr. p. 223 (installation view at Studio La Città, Verona), referred to in the text by F. Pola p. 196. |
| 2018 | Milan, Galleria Fumagalli, Giulio Paolini. Teoria delle apparenze. Opere 1969-2015, 16 January - 14 April, col. repr. pp. 27, 54-55, 66-67, 70-73 (exhibition views), referred to in the text by A. Madesani p. 11. |
| 2019-20 | Verona, Studio La Città, Quello che non ho venduto... 50 anni. Una storia, 7 December 2019 - 15 February 2020, col. repr. n. pag. (exhibition view). |
| 2022 | Miami, Piero Atchugarry, 50 Years, a Day. Studio la Città, a Story, 2 April - 27 July 2022. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 183 p. 198. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with A. Madesani, in Giulio Paolini. Teoria delle apparenze. Opere 1969-2015, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria Fumagalli, 2018, p. 11. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Werke und Schriften 1960-1980 (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1981), repr. n. pag. |
| • | Gian Enzo Sperone. Torino Roma New York 35 anni di mostre tra Europa e America, vol. 1 (Turin: Hopefulmonster editore, 2000), repr. p. 33. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), repr. p. 271. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 184 p. 199, repr. |
| • | S. Smets, “Looking at Latin 1911–1965–2019”, in Jolcel 8 (Ghent), biannual online journal, 2023, pp. 115-117, col. repr. p. 114. |
