Indice delle opere inscritto in un motivo decorativo, 1972
GPO-0240
Index of the Works Inscribed in a Decorative Pattern
Pencil, enamel and engraving on canvas
200 x 300 cm
Signed and titled on the verso, central stretcher bar: “Giulio Paolini Indice delle opere inscritto in un motivo decorativo”
Prada Collection, Milan
A decorative pattern of lozenges – drawn in pencil and then filled in with in gold enamel so as to leave at least the small interval between one unit and another exposed – serves as a grid for a dense set of quadrilaterals, etched into the enamel.
In line with the large-format works made in 1972 for the solo show at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York (GPO-0232, from GPO-0234 to GPO-0240), the work expands the spatio-temporal dimension of the painting, including, in the visual field, countless possible works, the artist's own and those of others, past or future works, pre-existing or hypothetical ones. It constitutes a sort of "diaphragm" that refracts the viewer's gaze from the unity of the surface towards the multiplicity of the various surfaces that precede it and from the whole from which it takes shape".1
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. 240 p. 248.
| 1972 | Spoleto, Chiesa di San Nicolò, 420 West Broadway at Spoleto Festival. 33 Artists Shown, XV Festival dei Due Mondi, 24 June - 9 July, repr. n. pag. |
| 1972 | New York, Sonnabend Gallery, Giulio Paolini, 25 November - 16 December. |
| 2018-19 | Milan, Fondazione Carriero, Giulio Paolini. Del bello ideale, 26 October 2018 - 10 February 2019, col. repr. vol. 1 pp. 138-139 (exhibition view), 166. |
| • | G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), pp. 100-112, in particular p. 112, repr. no. 95 p. 107; chapter published as “Item perspectiva. Opere recenti di Giulio Paolini”, in Domus 516 (Milan), November, 1972, pp. 45-48, repr. p. 47; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), pp. 348, 356, 374, 376, 382, in particular p. 382; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | M. Volpi Orlandini, “L’artista dell’avanguardia che piace allo storico dell’arte”, in Bolaffiarte 4, no. 31 (Turin), June-July, 1973, p. 85, repr.; republished in Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), p. 85. |
| • | Catalogo nazionale Bolaffi d’arte moderna n. 9, vol. III: Segnalati Bolaffi 1974 (Turin: Giulio Bolaffi Editore, 1974), col. repr. p. 109. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, op. cit. (Parma: 1976), repr. no. 152. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. p. 133. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 29. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 22. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 237. |
| • | Minimalia: An Italian Vision in 20th Century Art, exhibition catalogue, New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (Milan: Electa, 1999), col. repr. p. 95. |
| • | Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972, exhibition catalogue, London, Tate Modern, 2001, col. repr. p. 280, erroneously cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 106 p. 358. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), col. repr. p. 395. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 240 p. 248, col. repr. |
| • | D. Lancioni, “Può un’eccellente opera d’arte contemporanea essere ornamentale o decorativa?”, in Predella. Journal of Visual Arts 37, October, 2016, p. 184, not repr. |
| • | G. Celant, Ileana Sonnabend and Arte Povera (New York: Lévy Gorvy, 2017), col. repr. p. 199. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. p. 285 (exhibition view Milan 2018). |
| • | Ileana Sonnabend & Arte Povera, exhibition catalogue, Bucarest, MNAR-Muzeul Național de Artă al României (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2024), repr. p. 106. |
