Teoria delle apparenze, 1972
GPO-0239
Theory of Appearances
Pencil on primed canvas
200 x 300 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso, central stretcher bar, centre: “Giulio Paolini / Teoria delle apparenze / 1972”
Massimo De Carlo, Milan
The squaring in pencil at the centre of the canvas serves as a grid for the layout of eight rectangles of the same exact size as Disegno geometrico (1960, GPO-0001): four of them are juxtaposed to form the large quadrilateral in the middle, while the other four are arranged in the areas corresponding to the median points of the latter. Exhibited at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York in 1972, the work contains the eight works shown on that occasion (GPO-0232, from GPO-0234 to GPO-0240). Referring to the etymology of the term “theory", the title alludes to the consideration of a whole, in this case of "appearances" understood as the clues of alleged paintings.
| 1972 | New York, Sonnabend Gallery, Giulio Paolini, 25 November - 16 December. |
| 2018 | Milan, Galleria Fumagalli, Giulio Paolini. Teoria delle apparenze. Opere 1969-2015, 16 January - 14 April, col. repr. pp. 38-39, 41, 66-67, 70-73 (exhibition views), referred to in the texts by A. Madesani p. 12, A. Maggi p. 22. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with A. Madesani, in Giulio Paolini. Teoria delle apparenze. Opere 1969-2015, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria Fumagalli, 2018, p. 12. |
| • | G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), pp. 100-108, in particular pp. 103-104, repr. no. 91 p. 102; chapter published as “Item perspectiva. Opere recenti di Giulio Paolini”, in Domus 516 (Milan), November, 1972, pp. 45-48, repr. p. 45; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), pp. 348, 356, 374, 376, in particular p. 374; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 153. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), repr. p. 383. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 239 p. 247, col. repr. |
| • | G. Celant, Ileana Sonnabend and Arte Povera (New York: Lévy Gorvy, 2017), col. repr. p. 202. |
