Honfleur, 1969-71
GPO-0208
Collage on primed canvas
150 x 150 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso, upper stretcher bar, left: "Giulio Paolini / Honfleur 1969/1971"
Private collection, Turin
A collage made of torn pieces of coloured paper is arranged so that it is slightly distant from the edges of a primed canvas, corresponding to the four areas divided by the cross brace of the stretcher. Macroscopically, it simulates the chromatic pattern of a landscape viewed through a window. The title alludes to the city in Northern France where Georges Seurat, in 1886, realized a series of landscapes using the style known as Pointillism.
The collage was made at a time when Paolini was particularly fond of the work of Henri Rousseau, Georges Seurat, and Henri Matisse; this same fondness was also shared by Carla Lonzi, who, in 1966, had edited the volumes on Rousseau and Seurat for the “I maestri del colore” series (Milan: Fratelli Fabbri Editori).
The same theme was formulated in a smaller version made during the same year (GPO-0211).
| 2003 | Milan, Fondazione Prada, Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, 29 October - 18 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 404, col. repr. p. 333. |
| 2017 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, and Turin, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Colori. L’emozione dei colori nell’arte, 14 March - 23 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 320, not repr.; exhibited at Castello di Rivoli. |
| • | Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 144. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 208 p. 219, col. repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. pp. 238-239 (exhibition view Milan 2003). |
