Ritratto dell’artista come modello, 1981
GPO-0445
A Portrait of the Artist as a Model
Pencil on primed canvas, on reversed canvas and on wall, plaster cast
Three canvases 200 x 130 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Tate, London
Acquired in 1981, inventory no. T03320
• The drawing size is variable depending on the wall used. Initially find the vanishing centre point, by drawing the diagonal from each corner with string.
• Next draw the bottom horizontal line. This should be 46 cm from the gallery floor and should sit between the strung diagonals. All pencil lines should be strong and clear; they can be drawn over several times to achieve this.
• Now draw the bottom diagonals from the end points of the bottom horizontal line. The lines should be long enough to suggest the walls seen in perspective in the overall drawing (the Whitechapel installation with 46 cm long lines can be taken as an example only with regard to the overall proportions; with a much longer wall, even these diagonal lines may be shortly longer); the pencil line should be strong and then fade to nothing. They should not reach the gallery floor.
• Now draw the remaining top horizontal, vertical and top diagonal lines – again all pencil lines should be strong and clear. The top diagonal lines should have the same length as the bottom diagonal lines, and they should stop before the corner of the room. As before, the lines should be strong lines, that fade to nothing (the artist never stops a corner line abruptly).
• Once the drawing is complete the string can be removed and the plaster head can be hung.
• The placement of the head should be 214.6 cm (84.5”) from the top of the head to the gallery floor and horizontally central. The bracket sits 6 cm from top of head to top of the bracket.
• Finally the canvases are put into position. First place the central canvas (canvas C), so that the top edge is placed on top of the plaster head and with the canvas face to the wall – this will reveal the hands drawn on the back of the frame. The canvas should sit on the forehead of the plaster head, so that the eyes are hidden but some of the eyebrow is visible (as if the canvas were leaning against the eye).
• Secondly, canvas B is placed to the facing left side of C with part of the facing right side of B tucked behind C (approx. 13 cm).
• Thirdly canvas A is placed to the facing right side of canvas C with a gap left between A and C that equates to the same as the amount of canvas B tucked behind C (again approx. 13 cm).
• Finally asses the whole composition with eye level at the bottom horizontal line to ensure the horizontal lines on the canvasses appear to line up with the bottom horizontal line ( it's quite hard to ensure a total line up; theoretically it should be that way, but as in the Whitechapel installation it is hardly impossible to have it perfect; this also depends on the dimensions of the room; if the viewer has a deep perspective, it will be easier to see the perfect overall composition; if distance is shorter, it will be harder to have it perfect).
An overturned canvas, contained in the wall drawing of a room in perspective, is propped up against a plaster cast of the head of Praxiteles' Hermes, so that it appears to be held by the half-hidden figure, whose hands drawn on the stretcher are all that we see. Added to the scene are two other canvases of the same size, viewed from the recto and slightly farther back with respect to the central figure, thus suggesting the presence of two paintings in the virtual room drawn on the wall.
“Two faces in one, the artist is his model: by dint of chasing after it, of pursuing an ideal model, the artist ends up assuming its likeness”.1
The same theme was also developed in two previous variants, made in 1980 (GPO-0433, GPO-0434).
1 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. 433 p. 444.
• Head: Praxiteles, Hermes and the Infant Dionysos, 350-330 BC, marble, h 215 cm, Archaeological Museum, Olympia.
| 1981 | Cologne, Galerie Paul Maenz, Giulio Paolini, 30 June - 1 August. |
| 1982 | London, Tate Gallery, A Selection of the Acquisitions, January-March, anonymous entry n. pag., not repr. |
| 1983 | London, Tate Gallery, New Art at the Tate Gallery 1983, 14 September - 23 October, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 70, repr. p. 22. |
| 2014 | London, Whitechapel Gallery, Giulio Paolini. To Be or Not to Be, 9 July - 14 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 155, repr. p. 119, entry by M. Disch p. 118, referred to in the text by I. Bernardi p. 92. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2004), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 433 p. 444. |
| • | The Tate Gallery 1980-82. Illustrated Biennial Report (London: The Tate Gallery, 1983), p. 96, not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. p. 77 (exhibition view Cologne 1981). |
| • | Tate Gallery 1980-82. Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions (London: The Tate Gallery, 1984), catalogue entry p. 192, repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 1, repr. p. 53 (exhibition view Cologne 1981). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 445 p. 455, repr. (exhibition view Cologne 1981). |
| • | L. Vecere, In assenza. Appunti sull’autoritratto contemporaneo (Pisa: University Press, 2017), p. 83, repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Carriero (London: Koenig Books, 2019), repr. vol. 2 p. 52 (during the installation of the work, Cologne, 1981). |
| • | Paolini. I Grandi illustrati del Corriere della Sera. Arte contemporanea – I protagonisti 8, edited by F. Gualdoni (Milan: RCS MediaGroup S.p.a., 2022), repr. p. 20 (during the installation of the work, Cologne, 1981). |
