Astrolabe, 1994
GPO-0744
Photo prints, plexiglas sheets, marble sphere
Four photo prints and four plexiglas sheets 50 x 50 cm each, overall dimensions 10 x 103 x 103 cm
Private collection
The photograph divided into four parts, placed at short intervals on the ground and each held down by a plexiglas sheet, reproduces a solar eclipse, which formally corresponds to the black marble sphere situated at the centre, at the point where the four elements converge.
Three small circular cuts are made in the reproduction of the obscured sphere; in addition to recalling the planetary context they harken back to the iconographic theme of the drawing by Francis Picabia cited in the title (Astrolabe, ca. 1922).
The same title was also used for five other works, made between 1967 and 1995, including a complementary variant with a white cloud against a black background, associated with a crystal sphere (GPO-0758).
Title from Francis Picabia, Astrolabe, c. 1922, ink and watercolour on card stock, 73 x 55 cm, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
| 1995 | New York, Marian Goodman Gallery, Giulio Paolini, 7 January - 4 February. |
| 1995-96 | Seoul, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Tradition and Innovation: Italian Art since 1945, 12 September 1995 - 23 January 1996, cited in the checklist of exhibited works, col. repr. pp. 46-47 (exhibition view New York 1995). |
| 1999 | Frechen-Bachem, Galerie Jule Kewenig, Giulio Paolini, 8 March - 30 April. |
| • | 30/40. A Selection of Forty Artists from Thirty Years of Exhibitions at Marian Goodman Gallery, exhibition catalogue, New York, Marian Goodman Gallery, 2007, col. repr. p. 247 (exhibition view New York 1995). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 744 p. 757, col. repr. |
