Senza titolo, 1963
GPO-0036
Untitled
Paper laid down on masonite panel
39.5 x 39.5 cm
Signed and dated on the verso on a white paper square: “Giulio Paolini 1963”
Luisa Laureati Briganti Collection, Rome
A yellow sheet of paper is stretched across a masonite panel; the four corners of the sheet of paper are trimmed in order to leave the support visible. On the verso is the blurred image of a male head seen from behind.
This work is part of a group of works (from GPO-0028 to GPO-0049) whose common denominator is the presence of an intervention on both the recto and the verso of the painting. Surfaces of various types take turns appearing on the recto (painted paper, graph paper, photographic reproductions, shaped wooden panels), while on the verso (hidden from view) we find the details of images and printed words taken from magazines or from books (whether or not a textual element is present defines the title of the work or, contrarily, the lack of a title, such as in this case). The subtraction of the painting from its function as a vehicle for an image is a continuation of the study experimented with in some previous works that focus on a subject that, albeit mentioned, remains an unexpressed presence.
2015-16 | Milan, Fondazione Prada, Recto Verso, 3 December 2015 - 14 February 2016, col. repr. pp. 5 (recto, caption no. 12 p. 11 with incorrect date “1964”), 6 (verso), 26-28 (exhibition views). |
• | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), repr. pp. 90-91 (recto and verso). |
• | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 36 p. 73, col. repr. (recto) and b/w (verso). |
• | D. Soutif, "Filigrane. Paolini, il primo quadro e la storia dell’arte", in S. Bann et al., Il passato al presente. In tema 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), p. 94, not repr.; republished in French in Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne 137 (Paris), Autumn, 2016, p. 80, not repr. |
• | Eleonora Marangoni, Viceversa. Il mondo visto di spalle (Milan: Johan & Levi editore, 2020), col. repr. p. 103 (recto and verso). |