L’altra figura, 1986

Archive number

GPO-0578

English title

The Other Figure

Technique

Two plaster casts, one fractured plaster cast, white plinths

Dimensions

Two whole casts h 130 cm each, plinths 120 x 36 x 36 cm each, overall dimensions variable

Edition details

The work was executed in a numbered edition of three.

Collection

1/3	Reggia Vanvitelliana, Terrae Motus Collection, Caserta
2/3	Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota
3/3	Glenstone Foundation, Potomac, Maryland

Acquisitions and loans

2/3	Acquired in 1998

Display chronology

• 1986, Naples, Lucio Amelio: several fragments were also laid on the ground, i.e. a fragment right up close to every plinth.
• 1986, Los Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery: several fragments were also scattered on the ground, around the plinths.

Description

Two plaster casts of the Ephebe of Marathon, each of which set on a base, are placed up against two opposite walls, with the fragments of the third figure scattered around the feet of the two casts and on a variable number of bases – starting from a minimum of three and in proportion with the site itself – placed at regular intervals between the two figures along the same axis. Two fragments are located on the Ephebe’s open hand and on the wall in the area corresponding to the other hand, respectively.
The theme of the "other figure" was developed in four other versions made between 1979-80 and 1984 (GPO-0419, GPO-0501, GPO-0519, GPO-0530), as well as in a variant from the same year conceived for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (GPO-0577).

Sources

Ephebe of Marathon, 340-330 a.C., bronze, h 130 cm, Archaeological Museum, Athens.

Exhibitions

1986	Naples, Galleria Lucio Amelio, Fabro, Kounellis, Paolini, from 29 November, col. repr. n. pag. (exhibition view); edition 1/3; installation with four plinths.
1986	Los Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery, Giulio Paolini, 29 November 1986 - 10 January 1987; edition 2/3; installation with five plinths.
1986-87	Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, Markus Lüpertz, Giulio Paolini: figure, colonne, finestre, 19 December 1986 - 29 March 1987, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 57 p. 117 (erroneously dated “1984”), repr. pp. 127, 129 (exhibition views); edition 3/3; installation with five plinths.
1987	Paris, Grand Palais, Terrae motus. Naples. Tremblement de terre, 28 March - 11 May, col. repr. pp. 224-225 (exhibition view Naples 1986); edition 1/3; installation with five plinths.
1987	Nagoya, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Giulio Paolini, 31 October - 20 December, col. repr. pp. 52-53 (exhibition view, installation with five plinths, erroneously dated “1984”), repr. pp. 38-39 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87); edition 3/3.
1988-89	Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Giulio Paolini, 24 November 1988 - 26 February 1989, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 95, repr. no. 22 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87, with detail); edition 1/3; installation with seven plinths.
1989	Toronto, Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Giulio Paolini, from 11 March, no catalogue; edition 3/3.
1992	Caserta, Reggia Vanvitelliana, Terrae Motus alla Reggia di Caserta, from 21 November, repr. pp. 122 (exhibition view Naples 1986), 123 (detail); edition 1/3.
1997	Turin, Lingotto Fiere, Artissima Fiera d’arte moderna e contemporanea, Terrae Motus, September, col. repr. p. 25 (exhibition view Paris 1987); edition 1/3; installation with four plinths.
2001	Toyota, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Vision: A Fifth Anniversary Commemorative Exhibition of the Collection of the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, 27 March - 17 June, col. repr. p. 155 (installation view at Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, erroneously dated “1984”); edition 2/3; installation with five plinths.
2001	Caserta, Reggia Vanvitelliana, Terrae Motus. La collezione Amelio alla Reggia di Caserta, from 23 November, col. repr. pp. 118-119 (exhibition view), entry by D. Filardo pp. 198-199 cat. no. 52; edition 1/3; installation with four plinths.
2004	Caserta, Reggia Vanvitelliana, Terrae Motus, from 22 July, no catalogue; edition 1/3; installation with four plinths.
2005	Toyota, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Arte Povera, 19 March - 12 June, cat. no. 40 p. 233 (erroneously dated “1984”), col. repr. pp. 142-143 (installation view at Toyota Municipal Museum of Art); edition 2/3; installation with five plinths.
2011	Caserta, Reggia Vanvitelliana, 1961-2011. Cinquant'anni di arte in Italia dalle collezioni GNAM e Terrae Motus, 13 July - 13 November 2011, no catalogue; edition 1/3.
2013	Caserta, Reggia Vanvitelliana, MeMus – Terrae Motus, 28 March - 2 June, no catalogue; edition 1/3.
2020-21	Caserta, Reggia Vanvitelliana, Terremoto 1980. La Collezione Amelio negli Appartamenti Reali, from 23 November 2020; no catalogue; edition 1/3.
2022-23	Caserta, Reggia Vanvitelliana, new installation of the Terrae Motus Collection, from 17 December 2022; no catalogue; edition 1/3.

Bibliography

•	Incrocio: un racconto, exhibition catalogue, Erice, “La Salerniana” (Milan: Nuove edizioni Gabriele Mazzotta, 1987), col. repr. p. 25 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87, erroneously dated “1984”).
•	G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. pp. 116-117 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87, erroneously dated “1984”).
•	F. Poli, “Note di lettura”, in Id., Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), p. 40, repr. no. 113 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87); republished in Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), p. 65.
•	Eighty. Sculpture des années 80 / Sculpture of the 80’s ([Belgium]: Eighty Publications, 1990), col. repr. p. 157 (exhibition view Naples 1986).
•	Terrae Motus alla Reggia di Caserta. Guida alla Collezione, edited by J. Wagner (Naples: Fondazione Amelio Ercolanum, Electa and Guida editori, 1992), pp. 122-123, repr. (installation view at Reggia di Caserta, with detail).
•	Italiana. From Arte Povera to Transavanguardia, exhibition catalogue, Yokohama, Nicaf 3 (Milan: Fondazione Mudima Edizioni, 1994), repr. p. 8 (exhibition view Rome 1988-89).
•	M. Bertoni, “Giulio Paolini. Dove Vedo”, Critica e Documentazione 7, supplement to the bimonthly journal Segno 132 (Pescara), April, 1994, p. 22, not repr.; republished in M. Bertoni, Tempi e forme. Una ricerca sulle arti visive contemporanee (Turin: Hopefulmonster editore, 1998), p. 207, not repr.
•	D. von Drathen, “Giulio Paolini. Der blinde Blick des Sehers”, in Künstler. Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst 33, no. 7 (Munich: Weltkunst-Bruckmann Verlag, 1996), p. 7, col. repr. p. 12 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87, erroneously dated); republished in Id., Vortex of silence. Proposition for an art criticism beyond aesthetic categories (Milan: Edizioni Charta, 2004), p. 227, not repr.
•	R. Lambarelli, “Giulio Paolini”, in Contemporary Artists. Fourth Edition, edited by J. Cerrito (Detroit: St. James Press, 1996), repr. p. 890 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87, detail).
•	Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, op. cit. (Ostfildern-Ruit: 1998), repr. p. 270 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87).
•	L’ombra degli Dei. Mito Greco e Arte Contemporanea, exhibition catalogue, Bagheria, Civica Galleria “Renato Guttuso”, Villa Cattolica, Palermo (Naples: Electa, 1998), col. repr. p. 163 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87, detail).
•	M. Unterdörfer, Die Rezeption der Antike in der Postmoderne: der Gipsabguss in der italienischen Kunst der siebziger und achtziger Jahre (Weimar: VDG Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 1998), pp. 36, 49-50, 171, cat. no. 54 p. 145, not repr.
•	Arte all’arte. IV edizione: 1999, exhibition catalogue, San Gimignano, Arte Continua, 1999, repr. p. 196 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87, erroneously dated “1984”).
•	Vision. Selected Works from the Collection of Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, 2001, p. 223, col. repr. p. 155 (installation view at Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, erroneously dated “1984”), cited in the list of works from the collection p. 240.
•	Terrae Motus. La collezione Amelio alla Reggia di Caserta, Caserta, Reggia Vanvitelliana (Milan: Skira editore, 2001), col. repr. pp. 118-119 (installation view at Reggia di Caserta), entry by D. Filardo pp. 198-199 cat. no. 52.
•	Giulio Paolini. Early Dynastic, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Studio d’Arte Contemporanea Pino Casagrande (Milan: Skira editore, 2001), repr. p. 44 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87).
•	Richard Wagner. Die Walküre, programme edited by L. Valente (Naples: Edizioni del Teatro di San Carlo, 2005), repr. pp. 46- 47 (installation view at Reggia di Caserta Collection).
•	A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 509, not repr.
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 578 p. 591, repr. (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87).
•	Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., exhibition catalogue, Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno (Alba: Fondazione Mancini Carini, 2022), repr. pp. 158-159 (exhibition view Rome 1988).
•	Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 206 (exhibition view Rome 1988).

Entry by Maddalena Disch, 30/01/2026