Idem IV (regesto delle opere come motivo a figure geometriche sparse), 1974
GPO-0266
Idem IV (Register of Works as Scattered Geometric Figures Motif)
Worked metal (varies according to the edition number)
Seventy-two parts of different shapes and dimensions, box 8 x 8 x 8 cm, overall dimensions variable
Titled, signed, dated, and numbered on the printed sheet included with the box
The work was executed in a numbered edition of six, each of which distinguished by a different type of metal, worked in a different way. Due to the loss of the sheet, contained inside the box, bearing the number of the edition, the numbering of three of the six editions cannot be verified.
| I/VI (?) | Edition in polished silver: Mario Dellavedova Collection, Taxco (Mexico) |
| II/VI (?) | Edition in polished copper: Mario Dellavedova Collection, Taxco (Mexico) |
| III/VI | Edition in satin silver: Private collection, courtesy Repetto Gallery |
| IV/VI | Edition in satin copper: Private collection |
| V/VI | Edition in burnished copper: Collection of the artist |
| VI/VI | Edition in burnished silver: Private collection, Lyon |
The installation calls for a free or regular arrangement of the elements on the wall: in random order, starting from the more concentrated central nucleus and gradually branching outwards, or in a succession, thus tracing a rectangular perimeter or one with equidistant spaces in between, to form an orderly pattern. The way the elements are arranged must include the alternating of geometric forms, but without observing a predetermined criterion.
Alternatively, the work can be exhibited on a plinth, with the elements arranged inside the box, except for a few of them scattered on the outside, next to the box.
The seventy-two geometrically shaped metallic elements “evoke all together the idea of the inventory or the register of all the possible works”,1 as the artist tells us. If each element can be understood as the miniature of a painting, their assemblage enclosed in the box in turn underlies a "register" of potential installations.
The installation calls for a free or regular arrangement of the elements on the wall: in random order, starting from the more concentrated central nucleus and gradually branching outwards or, on the contrary, in an orderly sequence thus designing a rectangular perimeter. When the work is not installed, the seventy-two elements are preserved in the box made of the same type of metal.
Idem IV is part of a cycle of seven works made between 1972 and 1978, which have in common the idea of a "register" of "works" formulated each time in the form of a different "motif" (GPO-0244, GPO-0245, GPO-0261, GPO-0265, GPO-0296, GPO-0335, GPO-0400). In the artist's own words: “The cycle of works entitled Idem is conceived as the hypothetical register of all the works in existence, that have existed, or that may exist: both abstract and virtual, it allows me to proceed in time and in the history of art by listing without naming them the images that comprise it”.2 “Idem does not identify which works, but, rather, indicates those works constituting a whole that in some way pre-exists any further analysis or identification".3
The work is a smaller reproduction of the version made during the same year in fifteen editions (GPO-0265).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with I. Bernardi, 16 January 2013.
2 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2008), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 245 p. 254.
3 G. Paolini interviewed by C. Marchetti (1994), in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 288.
| • | G. Paolini, Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), p. 82, new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), p. 108; general commentary on the first four versions of Idem (GPO-0244, GPO-0245, GPO-0261, GPO-0265); first published in Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Bolzano, Galleria Il Sole, 1974, n. pag. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with C. Marchetti (1994), in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 288. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2008), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 245 p. 254. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 266 p. 276, not repr. |
