Senza titolo, 1963
GPO-0048
Untitled
Masonite panel mounted on a stretcher
52 x 42 cm
Signed and dated on the verso on a white paper square: "Giulio Paolini” (upper left), “1963" (lower left)
Calabresi Collection, Rome
A masonite panel screwed to a stretcher that is slightly smaller is shaped in all four corners so as to reveal its own support. On the verso is a photographic reproduction cut out from a magazine reproducing the detail of a technological system.
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.
| 1971 | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Giulio Paolini, Jannis Kounellis, July. |
| 1990-91 | Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma Anni ’60. Al di là della pittura, 20 December 1990 - 15 February 1991, col. repr. p. 157 (recto). |
| 2003 | Milan, Fondazione Prada, Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, 29 October - 18 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 398, col. repr. p. 89 (recto, rotated by 180 degrees). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 48 p. 81, col. repr. (reproduction of the verso horizontally reflected). |
