Senza titolo, 1964
GPO-0063
Untitled
Plywood panels
102 x 155 x 19 cm (two panels: 103 x 102 cm each)
Signed and dated on the verso of the panel at the right, on a white paper square: "Giulio Paolini 1964"
Collection of the artist
The installation calls for the partial overlapping of the two plates: the plate on the right, propped up against the wall, is half-hidden by the other one; while only 53 cm in width is visible for the former plate, the latter one is entirely visible.
The plate featuring the artist's signature on the blank paper square must be rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise with respect to the autograph inscriptions, so that the two plates are perfectly lined up at the top.
Two identical square plywood panels were placed up against a wall. Half of one of the panels was covered by the other panel, so as to create a dilemma of identity: an ambiguous role between the painting and the wall, akin to that between the copy and the original.
The work is part of the research that distinguishes the artist's output in 1964, characterized by simple plywood panels that when placed on the ground or hung from the wall, in the artist's words, “‘replaced’ the presence of pictures on the walls and analyzed the purely conventional rapports of an exhibition” (1973).1
In 2005 the artist intervened on the work adding a pencil drawing of three squares of different sizes and positions, developed in part on the wood and in part on the sheet of paper placed so that it was slightly oblique on the upper edge of the two panels. In 2022, the artist had second thoughts and decided to restore the original state of the work.
1 G. Paolini, "Note di lavoro", in NAC 3 (Milan), March, 1973, p. 10.
| • | G. Paolini, “Note di lavoro”, in NAC 3 (Milan), March, 1973, p. 10; republished in Id., Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), p. 42, new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), p. 68. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 63 p. 95, col. repr. (second state, 2005). |
