Melanconia ermetica, 1983
GPO-0487
Hermetic Melancholy
Pencil on paper, plaster cast, plinth, collage on wall
Paper sheets 30 x 30 cm each, plinth 120 x 30 x 30 cm, overall dimensions variable
The Rose Collection and The Rachofsky Collection
The proportions between the pile of sheets, the drawing on the front of the same, and the corresponding drawing traced on sheets scattered on the wall are determined by the dimensions and the format of the wall itself.
Between the support plane of the plinth and the piled up sheets a small gap of approx. 4-5 mm must be left, inserting between the plinth and the sheets a small sheet made of plexiglas (or some other rigid material) measuring around 25 x 25 cm.
The sheets associated with the cast must evoke the gesture of a rolled sheet held down by the hand.
On a plinth at the centre of a wall the plaster cast of a hand holding a scroll presses down on a neat pile of drawing paper – the ones at the top of the pile are partially wrapped around the cast, obeying the hand’s gesture – while other blank sheets are randomly distributed on the wall. At the front of the pile of drawing paper, a pencil drawing reiterates the image drawn in perspective on the wall behind it, which is repeated on a larger scale and more discontinuously on the sheets scattered across the wall itself.
There is a leap in dimension between the “potential drawings” piled up on the plinth and the sheets “that have flown away” to the wall to create a “drawing”: the ideal project, whose enigma no hand is capable of holding down, is lost in its own echo. The title, taken from the homonymous painting by Giorgio de Chirico (1919), joins two terms that in their literal meaning “capture the spirit of the work: on the one hand, something that is not manifest, and, on the other, the conscience of the limits of its own possibility to be manifested” according to the artist.1
1 G. Paolini interviewed by B. Paulino-Neto, in Beaux-Arts Magazine 25 (Paris), June, 1985, p. 40.
• Michelangelo Buonarroti, right hand of Giuliano de’ Medici’s statue, Tomba di Giuliano de’ Medici, 1526-34, Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Florence.
• Title from Giorgio de Chirico, Melanconia ermetica, 1919, oil on canvas, 62 x 49.5 cm, Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris.
| 1983 | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Giulio Paolini, 19 January - 1 March. |
| 1983 | Cologne, Galerie Paul Maenz, Giulio Paolini. Place des Martyrs, 25 February - 22 March. |
| 1983 | Fiesole, Palazzina Mangani, Il Grande Disegno, 4 June - 24 July, not repr. |
| 1984 | Milan, Studio Marconi, Giulio Paolini, from 9 February, not repr. |
| 1984 | Zurich, Galerie Annemarie Verna, Giulio Paolini, 26 April - 26 May. |
| 1984 | Spoleto, Palazzo Rosari Spada, XXVII Festival dei Due Mondi, Giulio Paolini. Casa di Lucrezio, 27 June - 16 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 11 p. 30, repr. pp. 54-55 (with detail). |
| 1985 | Paris, Galerie Maeght Lelong, Giulio Paolini. Melanconia ermetica, 14 May - 29 June, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 8 p. 32, repr. pp. 11 (detail), 13 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984), 15 (exhibition view Milan 1984), 24, referred to in the texts by J.L. Maubant p. 12, D. Soutif p. 24. |
| 2004 | Nice, Museé d’Art moderne et d’Art contemporain, Intra-muros, 26 June - 14 November, col. repr. pp. 202-207 (exhibition views), referred to in the text by G. Perlein p. 44 (repeated as a note to the work p. 198). |
| 2005 | Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Giulio Paolini. Esposizione universale, 23 April - 24 June, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 12 p. 87, col. repr. n. pag. (exhibition view), referred to in the text by D. Schwarz p. 22. |
| 2013 | Dallas, The Rachofsky House, Parallel Views: Italian and Japanese Art from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, 1 February - 31 October 2013, no catalogue. |
| 2016-17 | New York, Center for Italian Modern Art, Giorgio de Chirico – Giulio Paolini / Giulio Paolini – Giorgio de Chirico, 14 October 2016 - 24 June 2017, col. repr. pp. 6 (detail), 14-15 (exhibition view). |
| 2019 | Dallas, The Warehouse, The Sensation of Space, 20 May - 17 November, no catalogue. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with B. Paulino-Neto, “Giulio Paolini”, in Beaux-Arts Magazine 25 (Paris), June, 1985, p. 40; republished in Italian in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 216. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. pp. 146-147 (exhibition view Fiesole 1983 and details). |
| • | Coerenza in coerenza. Dall’Arte Povera al 1984, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Mole Antonelliana (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1984), repr. p. 166 (exhibition view Turin 1983). |
| • | Casa Vogue 154 (Milan), July-August, 1984, repr. on cover (exhibition view Milan 1984, with furnishings). |
| • | Rosenfest Berlin 1984, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, Daadgalerie, 1984, repr. p. 134 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984). |
| • | 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, repr. no. 45 (detail). |
| • | G. Celant, The Knot Arte Povera (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 1985), repr. p. 161 (exhibition view Paris 1985); Italian edition: Arte Povera (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 1989), repr. p. 167; French edition: Arte Povera (Villeurbanne: Art Édition, 1989), repr. p. 175. |
| • | Sculptures, prèmiere approche pour un parc, exhibition catalogue, Jouy-en-Josas, Fondation Cartier, 1985, repr. p. 50 (exhibition view Paris 1985). |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Nagoya, Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1987, repr. p. 33 (exhibition view Milan 1984). |
| • | A. Bonfand, “Sans titre”, in Giulio Paolini. De l’atelier à l’exposition, exhibition catalogue, Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1987, pp. 20-21, not repr. |
| • | Neoclassico. La ragione, la memoria, una città: Trieste, edited by F. Caputo and R. Masiero (Venice: Marsilio Editori, 1990), repr. p. 24 (exhibition view Paris 1985); complementary volume to the exhibition catalogue Neoclassico. L’attualità: arte, architettura, design, Trieste, Civico Museo Revoltella, Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Venice: Marsilio Editori, 1990). |
| • | E. Clausen, “La vocazione teatrale dell’opera d’arte”, in Art’o 12 (Bologna), Autumn, 2002, repr. p. 34 (exhibition view Paris 1985). |
| • | L.V. Masini, L’arte del Novecento. Dall’Espressionismo al Multimediale, vol. XI: L’Arte come idea (Florence-Rome: Giunti and Gruppo Editoriale Espresso, 2003), repr. no. 2851 p. 558 (detail). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 487 pp. 500-501, repr. (exhibition view Milan 1984, detail, and Paris 1985). |
| • | G. Bonomi, La disseminazione. Esplosione, frammentazione e dislocazione nell’arte contemporanea (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore, 2009), p. 113, repr. |
| • | Brera in contemporaneo. Fabro, Garutti, Kounellis, Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan: Johan & Levi editore, 2015), repr. pp. 224-225 (exhibition view Fiesole 1983). |
| • | Paolini. I Grandi illustrati del Corriere della Sera. Arte contemporanea – I protagonisti 8, edited by F. Gualdoni (Milan: RCS MediaGroup S.p.a., 2022), p. 62, col. repr. p. 63 (exhibition view New York 2016). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. pp. 186-187 (exhibition view Zurich 1984), 189 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984), b/w repr. p. 193 (exhibition view Paris 1985). |
| • | “Lo stato dell’arte. 5 domande / 3 artisti. Intervista a Giulio Paolini”, in Inside Art 19, no. 128 (Rome), July, 2023, repr. pp. 72-73 (exhibition view Paris 1985). |
