A occhio nudo, 1998
GPO-0819
Naked Eye
White passepartout framed in plexiglas case, photo print, pencil on wall
Plexiglas case 80 x 80 cm, overall dimensions ca. 120 x 120 cm
Private collection
Should the work be installed on a large wall, the halo of pencil marks can be made larger. On the contrary, when the wall is not suited to a halo of pencil marks, this can be omitted.
• 2012, Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert: the availability of a large wall allowed the artist to create a larger halo of pencil marks.
• 2020, Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli: as it was impossible to intervene on the decorated walls of the museum the artist omitted the drawing on the wall.
Hanging on the wall is a photograph of the negative print of a sidereal image. It is located in the area corresponding to the cut-out of the passepartout, placed inside a plexiglas case. The sidereal image is prolonged in the halo of pencil marks, scattered across the wall all around the case.
In the artist's own words: “While the case hanging on the wall and the pencil marks surrounding it are visible in their concrete reality – ‘to the naked eye’ – the photograph recalls a spatio-temporal vision that no gaze can truly capture, that is, an image that is projected in the infinity of the cosmos, a mere halo of dark light, a 'black hole' that escapes our gaze".1
1 G. Paolini in conversation with B. Della Casa, 1 November 2020.
| 1998-99 | Brescia, Galleria Massimo Minini, Giulio Paolini. Big Bang, 2 December 1998 - 30 January 1999. |
| 2006 | Bergamo, GAMeC Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Giulio Paolini. Fuori programma, 6 April - 16 Juky, col. repr. pp. 82-83 (exhibition view), 87. |
| 2010-11 | Torre Pellice, Tucci Russo Studio d’Arte Contemporanea, Basico. Moto perpetuo, 10 October 2010 - 11 February 2011. |
| 2012 | Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert, 7 September - 6 October, displayed alongside the solo exhibition, in one of the gallery’s offices. |
| 2016-17 | Milan, Galleria Christian Stein, Giulio Paolini. Fine, 10 November 2016 - 29 April 2017, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 158, col. repr. pp. 46-47, 54-55, 63 (exhibition views); exhibited at the venue in Pero. |
| 2020-21 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Giulio Paolini. Le Chef-d’œuvre inconnu, 15 October 2020 - 16 May 2021, vol. 1: cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 78, col. repr. pp. 34-35, 60 (exhibition views), referred to in the text by M. Beccaria pp. 61-65. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), col. repr. p. 64. |
| • | Il critico come curatore, edited by M. Bortolotti (Cinisello Balsamo-Milan: Silvana Editoriale and Artshow Edizioni, 2003), col. repr. pp. 112-113 (exhibition view Brescia 1998). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 819 p. 840, col. repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. pp. 232-233 (exhibition view Brescia 1998). |
