Duepiudue, 1965
GPO-0069
Twoplustwo
Photo print mounted on panel, nylon thread, plywood panel
200 x 160 cm (two parts: 200 x 160 cm, 38 x 28 cm)
Signed, dated, and titled on the verso of the larger panel, on a white paper square: “Giulio Paolini 1965 / Duepiudue”
Musée Modern Museum, Brussels
From 1991 to 1999 on loan at Musée d’Art Moderne, Brussels, acquired in 1999, inventory no. 12.048
Dropping down at the centre of a large plywood panel is smaller panel hanging from a nylon thread and covered with a black and white photograph, which duplicates the very situation of the two elements. Hence, the title “Twoplustwo”, which sums up the two actual panels and the two photographic ones.
The artist explains that: “The photograph on the panel suspended at the centre of the larger panel is the image of what the picture looked like before the lens, i.e. it reproduces the very image of the picture” (1972).1 Retrospectively, in 2003, he said that: “In a certain sense, the photograph placed in the middle of the painting is a full-fledged certificate of the work’s authenticity. Hence, the work is seen and referred to by an eye that is not my own – the camera lens, objective by definition – which unlike my gaze is authorized to declare that the work exists or even the fact that it is real”.2 With Duepiudue Paolini introduces the photograph as medium that is not so much meant to offer images, as it is to talk about the image in itself. In the artist's words: “The photograph offers the artist the chance to ‘experience’ the painting: vision is the thing which has already be seen by the lens, the image is the critical copy of what is real” (1973).3
The theme of the two suspended panels, the one at the centre of the other (in this case, further doubled by way of the photograph) was first formulated in a work from the previous year, similarly comprising a natural wooden panel suspended at the centre of a larger panel, thus suggesting a painting hanging on a wall (GPO-0054).
1 G. Paolini in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), pp. 42, 44 (revised translation, republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant [Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003], p. 134), reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019), pp. 42, 44.
2 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 , vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 69 p. 100.
3 G. Paolini interviewed by N. Orengo, in Libri Nuovi 7, no. 1 (Turin), June, 1975, p. 8; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 169.
| 1973 | Milan, Studio Marconi, Paolini: opere 1961/73, from 15 November, not repr. |
| 1986 | Charleroi, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Giulio Paolini, 15 February - 30 March, not repr. (catalogue Giulio Paolini. Images / Index, Villeurbanne 1984). |
| 1989 | London, Royal Academy of Arts, Italian Art in the 20th Century. Painting and Sculpture 1980-1988, 14 January - 9 April, repr. p. 423. |
| • | G. Paolini in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 40; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 134; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with N. Orengo, in Libri Nuovi 7, no. 1 (Turin), June, 1975, p. 8; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 169. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), p. 185. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 69 p. 100. |
| • | G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 40, repr. no. 34 p. 41; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 134; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | G. Celant, “Image of the Image”, in Art and Artists 9, no. 98 (London), May, 1974, p. 14, repr.; republished in Id., Senza titolo 1974 (Rome: Bulzoni, 1976), pp. 259-260, repr. no. 139. |
| • | G. Paolini, Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), repr. p. 17; new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), repr. p. 43. |
| • | Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 50. |
| • | L. Busine, Les Doublures de Giulio Paolini (Brussels: Édition Lebeer-Hossmann, 1986), repr. p. 58. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 185. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 7. |
| • | M. Fagiolo Dell’Arco, “Giulio Paolini, ‘Villa Medici 1331996’”, in Giulio Paolini. Correspondances, exhibition catalogue, Rome, French Academy, Villa Medici (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 1996), repr. p. 43. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 203. |
| • | C. Christov-Bakargiev, Arte Povera (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999), p. 37, not repr. |
| • | “Acquisitions”, in Musées royaux des Beaux- Arts de Belgique. Agenda 2000 (Brussels), July-August-September, 2000, repr. n. pag., catalogue entry by F. L. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), repr. p. 127. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 69 p. 100, repr. |
| • | Arte povera 2011, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2011), repr. no. 478 p. 600. |
| • | J. Meinhardt, “Vedere ed essere visti. Giulio Paolini e lo sguardo”, in S. Bann et al., Giulio Paolini. Vedo e non vedo. In tema 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), p. 102, not repr. |
| • | J. Meinhardt, Giulio Paolini. Senza titolo, 1961. In collezione 3 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2015), pp. 52, 66, repr. p. 75. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Carriero (London: Koenig Books, 2019), repr. vol. 2 p. 4 (the artist in his studio looking at Duepiudue). |
