Le tre Grazie, 1977-78
GPO-0379
The Three Graces
Pencil and collage on photo canvas, pencil on wall
Three parts 82 x 108 cm each, overall dimensions 200 x 340 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the third canvas, lower stretcher bar, right: “Giulio Paolini Le tre Grazie 1977-78”. Variable inscriptions on the verso of the three canvases, upper stretcher bar, left: edition 1, first canvas “Aglaia (24/2/1973-15/11/1973)”, second canvas “Eufrosine (24/2/1973-21/3/1974)”, third canvas “Talia (24/2/1973-22/2/1975)”; edition 2, first canvas "Aglaia (24/2/1973 - 4/4/1975)", second canvas "Eufrosine (24/2/1973 - 6/9/1975)", third canvas "Talia (24/2/1973 - 11/10/1975)”; edition 3: no inscriptions on the verso
The work was executed in an edition of three, each of them distinguished by the number of overlapping negatives in the sequence of the three photographic canvases. In the first edition, the canvases feature from two to four overlapping images; in the second, from five to seven; in the third, from eight to ten. In editions 1 and 2, written on the verso of each of the canvases is the name of one of the three Graces (Aglaea, Euphrosyne, Thalia), followed in parentheses by two dates, referable each time to the date of the opening of the first and the last exhibition, reproduced in the overlapping photographs.
| 1 | Private collection |
| 2 | Fonds national d’art contemporain, CNAP, Yvon Lambert donation to the French State, Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris. Long-term loan to the Collection Lambert, Avignon |
| 3 | Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin |
| 2 | Gift of Yvon Lambert to the French State, 2012, inventory no. FNAC 2013-0109 (1-3) |
| 3 | Gift of the artist, 25 October 2012, archive no. GPO-0379 |
Three photographic canvases feature an increasing series of images of previous solo shows of the artist in chronological succession, starting from two exhibition views from 1973 overlapped in the first canvas of the first edition all the way to ten overlapping views of exhibitions from 1973 to 1978 in the last canvas of the third edition1. The canvases are each associated with a female figure, represented life-size half on the wall and half on the canvas.2 Each of the three Graces – Aglaea, Euphrosyne and Thalia – is holding, instead of the sphere visible in Raphael’s painting, the negative photographic prints, seen from both the recto and the verso, corresponding to the negatives overlapping in the corresponding photo canvas. In an exhibition context “the three announcing figures recall other exhibitions, which in turn overlap until they become muddled in a mysterious and undecipherable itinerary. While in 1969 the goddess Iris, a solitary and absolute figure, offered the apparition of a blank and suspended canvas (GPO-0195), the three Graces evoke a path in the making, that ends, however, by becoming dark and losing trace of itself".3
The same title was used for two other works, formally entirely different, made for the same solo show, entitled “Le tre Grazie”, held at the Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris in 1978 (GPO-0380, GPO-0381).
1 Starting from the first canvas of the first edition, the gradually juxtaposed photographs reproduce, in this order, the following exhibition views: solo show at the Galleria L’Attico, Rome, 1973; solo show at the Studio Marconi, Milan, 1973; solo show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1974; Dimostrazione (GPO-0272) exhibited for the group show “Sempre cose nuove pensando. Aspecten actuele Kunst uit Italië”, ICC Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, Antwerp, 1975; solo show at the Galerie Annemarie Verna, Zurich, 1975; solo show at the Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne, 1975; Glossario (GPO-0301) exhibited in the solo show at the Galleria Ugo Ferranti, Rome, 1975; solo show at the Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, 1976; solo show at the Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma, 1976; a detail from the work Idem VI (GPO-0335) in the solo show at the Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne, 1976.
2 The life-size drawing of the three figures reproduces the profiles of the Le Tre Grazie (1504-05) by Raphael.
3 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2004), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 379 p. 384.
Raffaello Sanzio, Le tre Grazie, 1504-05, oil on wood, 17 x 17 cm, Musée Condé, Chantilly.
| 1978 | Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Giulio Paolini. Le tre Grazie, 6 April - 6 May; edition 2. |
| 1979 | Rome, Galleria dell’Oca, Giulio Paolini. Le tre Grazie, from 2 February; edition 1. |
| 1982 | Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Vergangenheit, Gegenwart, Zukunft. Zeitgenössische Kunst und Architektur, 26 May - 22 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 316, repr. pp. 46-47 (exhibition view Paris 1978); edition 3. |
| 1987 | Rome, Galleria dell’Oca, Tridente due. Divergenze e Corrispondenze, from 6 March, repr. p. 62 (detail); edition 1. |
| 1992 | Villeneuve d’Ascq, Musée d’art moderne; Tourcoing, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Yvon Lambert collectionne, 18 January - 20 April, cat. no. 222 p. 316, repr. p. 228; edition 2. |
| 2003 | Avignon, Hôtel de Caumont, Rendezvous 4. Collection Lambert, 25 January - 27 April, no catalogue; edition 2. |
| 2008-09 | Rome, French Academy, Villa Medici, La Collection Lambert en Avignon. Voyage à Rome, 7 May - 14 July, touring to: Avignon, Collection Lambert, 13 December 2008 - 31 May 2009 (titled La Collection Lambert en Avignon. Retour de Rome), repr. p. 100 (incompletely dated “1978”), referred to in the text by E. Mézil; edition 2. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2004), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 379 p. 384. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1980, repr. p. 40 (exhibition view Paris 1978). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Premio Bolaffi 1980 (Turin: Giulio Bolaffi Editore, 1980), repr. p. 22 (exhibition view Paris 1978). |
| • | Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), repr. p. 570 (exhibition view Paris 1978). |
| • | Roma in mostra 1970 1979. Materiali per la documentazione di mostre azioni performance dibattiti, edited by D. Lancioni (Rome: Edizioni Joyce & Co., 1995), cat. no. 921 pp. 128-129, not repr. |
| • | S. Bann, “Giulio Paolini”, in Rewriting Conceptual Art, edited by M. Newman and J. Bird (London: Reaktion Books, 1999), pp. 184-185, repr. p. 184 (exhibition view Paris 1978). |
| • | D. Lancioni, “Giulio Paolini: percorsi in prospettiva. Note su alcune vicende romane e l’eco della sua lezione”, in Risonanze #2. Giulio Paolini & Fabio Vacchi, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Spazio Risonanze, Auditorium Parco della Musica (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2008), p. 68, not repr. |
| • | M. Bandini, M.C. Mundici, M.T. Roberto, Luciano Pistoi: “inseguo un mio disegno” (Turin: Hopefulmonster editore, 2008), repr. 293 (exhibition view Rome 1979). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 379 pp. 384-385, repr. (exhibition view Paris 1978). |
| • | Une histoire intime de l’art: Yvon Lambert, une collection, une donation, un lieu (Paris-Avignon: Centre national des arts plastiques, Éditions Dilecta and Collection Lambert, 2023), p. 199, col. repr. pp. 214-215 (incompletely dated “1978”), cited in the list of works from the collection p. 434. |
