Vedo (l’opera completa di Édouard Manet come decifrazione del mio campo visivo), 1974

Archive number

GPO-0276

English title

I See (the Complete Works of Édouard Manet as the Deciphering of My Visual Field)

Technique

Collage on primed canvas

Dimensions

225 x 375 cm

Inscriptions by the artist

Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the third canvas, upper stretcher bar, left: "Giulio Paolini Vedo (l'opera completa di Edouard Manet come decifrazione del mio campo visivo) / 1974"

Collection

Giorgio Marconi Collection, Milan

Description

The torn fragments of several colour plates taken from L’opera completa di Édouard Manet (Milan: Rizzoli, 1967), scattered across four canvases placed close together, trace the elliptical area corresponding to the artist's own visual field.
The work harkens back to the first "deciphering" of the artist's visual field, made in 1969 (GPO-0188, GPO-0189). The same theme was later developed in three other variants (GPO-0512, GPO-0608 GPO-1051).

Sources

L’opera completa di Édouard Manet. Classici dell’arte 14 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1967).

Exhibitions

1974	Milan, Studio Marconi, La ripetizione differente, from 9 October, repr. n. pag., referred to in the text by R. Barilli n. pag.
1975	Rimini, Quartiere Fieristico, Empirica: l’arte tra addizione e sottrazione, 18 May - 25 June, repr. p. 203.
1976	Parma, Palazzo della Pilotta, Sala delle Scuderie, Giulio Paolini, 11 March - 21 April, repr. no. 184, referred to in the text by M. Fagiolo p. 27.
1977	Mannheim, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Giulio Paolini, 31 July - 28 August, not repr.
1977-78	Rotterdam, Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Schijnbare tegenstellingen. Zestien Italiaanse Kunstenaars, 10 December 1977 - 15 January 1978, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 47 p. 36 (with incorrect indication of the ownership), repr.
1978-79	Cologne, Galerie Paul Maenz, Giulio Paolini, 16 December 1978 - 16 January 1979.
1997	Cortina d’Ampezzo, Galleria Civica; Belluno, Palazzo Crepadona, Arte Povera e dintorni, 1 August - 21 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 94 (erroneously dated “1975”), repr. pp. 56-57.
2006	Lugano, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, L’immagine del vuoto. Una linea di ricerca nell’arte in Italia 1958-2006, 7 October 2006 - 7 January 2007, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 99 p. 279, col. repr. pp. 268, 269.
2007	Milan, Galleria Giò Marconi, Giulio Paolini, 4 May - 27 July.
2014	Milan, Fondazione Marconi, La ripetizione differente 1974/2014, 11 June - 18 July, col. repr. n. pag., referred to in the text by R. Barilli n. pag.

Bibliography

•	R. Barilli, Informale Oggetto Comportamento, vol. II: La ricerca artistica negli anni ’70 (Milan: Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, 1979), p. 119, not repr.; taken from La ripetizione differente, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Studio Marconi, 1974.
•	Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1980, repr. p. 55 (exhibition view Mannheim 1977, visible at the rear to the right).
•	Giulio Paolini. Werke und Schriften 1960-1980 (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1981), repr. n. pag.
•	W.M. Faust, “Et quid amabo: Notizen zu Arbeiten von Giulio Paolini”, in Giulio Paolini. Del bello intelligibile, exhibition catalogue, Bielefeld, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 1982, p. 15, repr.
•	Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. pp. 68-69.
•	B. Corà, “Tutto qui (o la preesistenza dell’opera in Giulio Paolini)”, in Giulio Paolini. “Tutto qui”, exhibition catalogue, Ravenna, Pinacoteca Comunale, Loggetta Lombardesca (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1985), pp. 18-19, not repr.
•	M. Scholz-Hänsel, “Das imaginäre Museum Giulio Paolinis”, in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 2, p. 11, repr. p. 28.
•	Autobiografia di una galleria. Lo Studio Marconi 1965/1992 (Milan: Skira editore, 2004), col. repr. p. 112 (erroneously dated “1975”).
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 276 p. 287, col. repr.
•	E. Franz, “‘Vedo e non vedo’”, in E. Franz et al., Giulio Paolini. Vedo e non vedo. In tema 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), p. 26, col. repr. p. 65.
•	E. Volpato, “L’Ile enchantée. La visione è cieca”, ibid., p. 62.
•	L. Conte, “Una totalità come ‘possibile’”, in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria Christian Stein, 2017, p. 30, repr. p. 27.

Entry by Maddalena Disch, 03/03/2025