Idem V (regesto delle opere come motivo a scala cromatica), 1975
GPO-0296
Idem V (Register of Works as Chromatic Scale Motif)
Tempera on card stock, engraved and framed in plexiglas cases
Fourty framed parts 10 x 14.5 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Private collection
From 1975 to 2008 on loan at Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld
The installation of the work calls for the distribution of the elements based on the order of the chromatic scale, in several parallel rows and at regular intervals, thereby forming an orderly pattern over the entire surface of one or more walls, or else lined up at regular intervals in a horizontal sequence, thus creating a continuous frieze, at the viewer's eye level, along the walls of the room.
Idem V is made up of forty small cards painted with tempera in the colours of the chromatic scale, which bear at the centre the etching of a simple geometric form (circle, square, diamond, triangle, rectangle). rectangle). Each element is framed in a plexiglas case of the exact same size.
The installation of the work requires a distribution of the elements based on the order of the chromatic scale, in several parallel rows and at regular intervals so as to form an orderly pattern over the entire surface of one or more walls, or else lined up at regular intervals in a horizontal sequence, thus creating a continuous frieze, at the viewer's eye level, along the walls of the room.
Idem V 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”.1 “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".2
1 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.
2 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.
| 1975 | Cologne, Galerie Paul Maenz, Giulio Paolini. Idem (V), 6-26 September. |
| 1976 | Krefeld, Museum Haus Lange, Einzelwerke und Zusammenhänge, 21 November 1976 - 9 January 1977, no catalogue. |
| 1983-84 | Krefeld, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, 15 Jahre Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs im Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld, 13 November 1983 - 8 April 1984, cat. no. 257, repr. p. 158 (catalogue published as Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs im Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld). |
| 1989 | Krefeld, Haus Lange, Ein weiterer Flügel. Arbeiten der 60er und 70er Jahre von Bell, Ben, Buren, Darboven, Flanagan, Hesse, Judd, Kawara, Kosuth, Kuehn, McCracken, Merz, Palermo, Paolini, Rückriem, Ruthenbeck, Salvo, Sandback, Serra, Sonnier und Tuttle aus dem Besitz des Kaiser Wilhelm Museums und der Sammlung Lauffs, [unknown dates], no catalogue. |
| 1996 | Leverkusen, Erholungshaus der Bayer AG, Zeichnungen 1950-1990 aus dem Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld und der Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs, 14 April - 19 May, touring to: Nuremberg, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, 10 July - 25 August; Krefeld, Museen Haus Lange und Haus Esters, 8 September - 3 November, cat. no. 148, col. repr. p. 144 (detail). |
| 2008 | New York, David Zwirner Gallery, Selections from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs, 1-21 May, touring to: Zurich, Hauser & Wirth, 1 June - 26 July. |
| 2008 | New York, Zwirner & Wirth, Minimal and Conceptual Art in Europe from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs, 5 November - 23 December, no catalogue. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with J. De Sanna, A. Zevi and L. Fabro, Milan, Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, June, 1985, published in G. Paolini, Ancora un libro (Rome: Editrice Inonia, 1987), p. 46. |
| • | 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. |
| • | Paul Maenz 1970-1975 (Cologne: Galerie Paul Maenz, 1975), p. 92, repr. (exhibition view Cologne 1975). |
| • | Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 190 (exhibition view Cologne 1975). |
| • | Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), repr. p. 482 (exhibition view Cologne 1975). |
| • | 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. 18 (in general on the cycle titled “Idem”), repr. p. 19. |
| • | Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs im Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld (Krefeld: Krefelder Kunstmuseen, 1983), p. 176, cat. no. 257 p. 253 in the list of works from the collection, repr. p. 158 (erroneously installed to form a frame). |
| • | S. Isler, Del bello intelligibile. Semiotische Analyse zu sechs Werken von Giulio Paolini, PhD dissertation (Zurich: Philosophische Fakultät I der Universität Zürich, 1983), pp. 221-223, 225-226, 228-241 (in general on the cycle titled “Idem”), not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, “L’atto espositivo. Appunti sul lavoro di Giulio Paolini”, in Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), pp. 117, 121 (in general on the cycle titled “Idem”), not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 296 pp. 304-305, repr. (exhibition view Cologne 1975) and col. repr. (exhibition view Zurich 2008). |
| • | The Helga and Walther Lauffs Collection (New York-Göttingen: Zwirner & Wirth and Steidl Verlag, 2009), vol. 1: col. repr. pp. 133 (exhibition view Zurich 2008), 229, 230 (exhibition view New York 2008); vol. 2: referred to in the text by J. Weiss, catalogue entry pp. 166-167, col. repr. pp. 57 (exhibition view Zurich 2008), 166. |
| • | Teatro di Mnemosine. Giulio Paolini d’après Watteau, exhibition catalogue, Lugano, Spazio -1 Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati (Bellinzona: Edizioni Casagrande, 2015), repr. p. 39. |
