Parnaso, 1977
GPO-0375
Parnassus
Pencil and nails on primed canvas
Central canvas 40 x 60 cm, overall dimensions 120 x 180 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the central canvas, lower stretcher bar, right: “Giulio Paolini / Parnaso / 1977”
Mario Pieroni Collection, Rome
The oblique sides drawn on the central canvas must look as though they are the continuation of the oblique sides of the trapezoidal canvases.
The vanishing point simulated by two trapezoidal canvases converges in the central canvas, which features drawings of two other paintings seen in perspective. The perspectival simulation is corroborated by the nails and by the thickness drawn in pencil along one vertical side of the trapezoidal canvases.
The title refers to the name of the mountain that in Greek mythology was consecrated to the worship of the god Apollo, and was inhabited by the nine Muses. Figuratively, the citation locates the space of the representation (evoked by way of the perspectival construction) as belonging to the classical dimension of Art.
This work was the first in a group of six variants on the same theme, made between 1977 and 1979 (GPO-0375, GPO-0384, GPO-0394, GPO-0395, GPO-0404, GPO-0416).
| 1978 | Naples, Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes, Giulio Paolini, from 9 February, no catalogue. |
| 2009-10 | Foligno, Centro Italiano Arte Contemporanea, Spazio, Tempo, Immagine, 15 November 2009 - 31 January 2010, repr. p. 134 (erroneously dated "1977-78"). |
| 2013 | Rome, MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma, Ritratto di una città #2. Arte a Roma 1960 - 2001, 16 May - 15 September, no catalogue. |
| 2021 | Paris, MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique, Omaggio a Lucio Amelio, 4 May - 4 June. |
| • | G. Paolini in Studio Marconi 4-5 (Milan), 20 April 1978, p. 62 (note to the work published in the visitor's guide drawn up for the solo exhibition at Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes, Naples 1978). |
| • | Paolo Mussat Sartor Fotografo 1968-1978. Arte e artisti in Italia (Turin: Stampatori Editore, 1979), repr. p. 171 (exhibition catalogue Naples 1978). |
| • | Der Traum des Orpheus. Mythologie in der italienischen Gegenwartskunst 1967 bis 1984, exhibition catalogue, Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1984, repr. p. 87. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 176 (exhibition catalogue Naples 1978, erroneously dated “1977-78”). |
| • | Paolo Mussat Sartor. Artisti e opere. Portraits, exhibition catalogue, Nice, Galerie contemporaine du Musée d’Art moderne et d’Art contemporain, 2003, repr. n. pag. (exhibition catalogue Naples 1978). |
| • | A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 363 (in general on the group of works titled Parnaso), not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 , vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 375 p. 380, repr. |
| • | Paolo Mussat Sartor Luoghi d’arte e di artisti. 1968-2008 (Zurich: JPR|Ringier, 2008), repr. n. pag. (exhibition catalogue Naples 1978). |
