Les fausses confidences, 1983
GPO-0506
Slide, slide projector, primed canvases
Three canvases 40 x 60 cm each, three canvases 60 x 90 cm each, three canvases 90 x 120 cm each, one canvas 200 x 120 cm, overall dimensions variable
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Gift of Ermenegildo Zegna Corporation, 1984, inventory no. 84.3249
In a semi-dark room a large primed canvas hanging on the wall is used as a screen for the projection of one slide, while nine other variously sized canvases, seen from both the recto and the verso, lie on the floor or else are propped up precariously against the wall. The collage projected on the canvas reproduces the cut-out figure of Jean-Antoine Watteau’s L’Indifférent (1717), whose upper body is reversed in the quadrangle (mirror or canvas) that the figure seems to be holding before him. The mise-en-scène of an actor in the act of presenting or contemplating a potential "painting" enriches in declaredly theatrical terms the repertoire of the stand-in for the author-spectator introduced from the mid-1970s onwards: Delfo (III), 1977 (GPO-0372), Cratilo, 1978 (GPO-0387), Incognita, 1979 (GPO-0414), De pictura, 1979 (GPO-0417). The theatrical setting and the taste for scenic fiction are reinforced by the title, which harkens back to that of the play written by Pierre de Marivaux in 1737.
The figure reproduced by Watteau and the title Les fausses confidences appeared for the first time in 1979-80, in works on paper (GPC-0490, GPC-0828, GPC-0553, GPC-1759) and in a print edition (GPE-0038). They can also be found in the lithographic portfolio also published in 1983.
Jean-Antoine Watteau, L’Indifférent, 1716, oil on wood, 25 x 19 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris; reproduction from L’opera completa di Watteau. Classici dell’arte 21 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1968), plate XI.
• Title from the comedy by Pierre de Marivaux, Les fausses confidences, 1737.
| 1983 | Rome, Galleria Mario Pieroni, Boetti, LeWitt, Paolini, from 15 December, col. repr. n. pag. (exhibition view). |
| 1985 | New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Giulio Paolini. Les fausses confidences, 17 May - 7 July, no catalogue. |
| 1990 | Venice, Fondazione Peggy Guggenheim, Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. Dipinti e sculture dalla Peggy Guggenheim Collection e dal Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 9 September - 9 December, repr. |
| • | A. Bonito Oliva, Dialoghi d’artista. Incontri con l’arte contemporanea 1970-1984 (Milan: Electa, 1984), col. repr. p. 215 (exhibition view Rome 1983, flipped horizontally). |
| • | S. Vertone, “Non tutto qui”, in Giulio Paolini. “Tutto qui”, exhibition catalogue, Ravenna, Pinacoteca Comunale, Loggetta Lombardesca (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1985), p. 46, repr. no. 41 (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
| • | G. Celant, The Knot Arte Povera (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 1985), col. repr. pp. 158-159 (exhibition view New York 1985); Italian edition: Arte Povera (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 1989), repr. pp. 164-165; French edition: Arte Povera (Villeurbanne: Art Édition, 1989), repr. pp. 172-173. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 4, repr. p. 41 (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
| • | A. Mammì, I. Panicelli, “Biografia e bibliografia di Giulio Paolini”, in Markus Lüpertz, Giulio Paolini: figure, colonne, finestre, exhibition catalogue, Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, 1986, p. 84, not repr. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 91 (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
| • | M. Disch, “Giulio Paolini. Hors-d’oeuvre”, in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by Id. (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), pp. 109-110, repr. no. 29 (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
| • | G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), repr. p. 69 (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 506 pp. 516-517, col. repr. (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
| • | I. Bernardi, “Il giuoco delle parti”, in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Rome, MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma and London, Whitechapel Gallery (Rome: Quodlibet Edizioni, 2014), pp. 92-93, repr. p. 88 (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
| • | Galleria Pieroni 1970-1992 ([Spoltore]: Di Paolo Edizioni, 2016), repr. pp. 244-245 (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
| • | In viaggio per l’arte. La Galleria Pieroni 1975-1992, exhibition catalogue, Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo (Rome: Quodlibet Edizioni, 2025), col. repr. p. 61 (exhibition view Rome 1983). |
