Eterna, 1965
GPO-0070
Photo print affixed to a sheet of drawing paper fastened to a masonite panel with drawing pins
70 x 80 cm
Signed and dated on the verso, upper stretcher bar, left: "Giulio Paolini 1965"
The Rachofsky Collection, Dallas
At the centre of a sheet of drawing paper, fastened by drawing pins ("Eterna" brand) at the two upper corners to a masonite support, is a photograph. Fastened only along the upper edge it is a reproduction of the image of the sheet itself. According to the artist, in retrospect: "The white sheet drops down like a curtain on the masonite surface and at the same time it holds at its centre a photographic reproduction of itself, which becomes the subject of the painting, the only given to be viewed".1
In February 2004, inspired by the owner of the work who asked whether it was possible to remove the masonite panel, Paolini wrote a note “about Eterna and my works in general, from yesterday and today”. “If in this case I am against the removal of the painting support it is not for 'aesthetic' reasons: if , today, I were the young artist I once was I would conceive the work directly on the wall (I understand your suggestion). However, the reasons are of a 'historical' nature: my intention was, and still is today, not so much that of an intervention in the environment as much as the expectation of an image, of a possible answer to the question of the existence (or survival?) of the painting, of an autonomous, suspended figure, which overlaps and replaces the wall".2
1 G. Paolini in conversation with I. Bernardi, Turin, 29 October 2012.
2 Typescript held in the artist's archive; first published in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 70 p. 101.
| 1982 | Villeurbanne, Le Nouveau Musée, Une introduction à l’œuvre de Giulio Paolini 1960/70. Artiste invité de l’année, 16 September - 31 October, no catalogue; exhibition copy. |
| 2003 | Milan, Studio Giangaleazzo Visconti, Lucio Fontana, Giulio Paolini, Mario Schifano, June - July. |
| 2013 | Dallas, The Warehouse, Parallel Views: Italian and Japanese Art from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, 1 February - 31 October 2013, no catalogue. |
| 2017 | Dallas, The Warehouse, Thinking Out Loud: Notes for An Evolving Collection, 10 February - 30 April, no catalogue. |
| 2017-18 | Dallas, The Warehouse, Doubles, Dobros, Pliegues, Pares, Twins, Mitades, 10 July 2017 - 15 April 2018, no catalogue. |
| • | G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), repr. no. 37 pp. 44-45; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | M. Fagiolo, “Glossario”, in Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), pp. 21-22, repr. no. 60. |
| • | Aphoto. Fotografia come superficie, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Studio Marconi, 1977, repr. p. 64. |
| • | I. Mussa, “Aphoto e lo specifico fotografico”, in Studio Marconi 1-2 (Milan), 26 January 1978, repr. p. 53. |
| • | G. Paolini, Voix off (Maçon: Éditions W, 1986), repr. p. 136. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), repr. p. 135. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 70 p. 101, repr. |
| • | J. Meinhardt, Giulio Paolini. Senza titolo, 1961. In collezione 3 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2015), p. 66, repr. p. 76. |
| • | Brera in contemporaneo. Fabro, Garutti, Kounellis, Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan: Johan & Levi editore, 2015), repr. p. 211. |
| • | I. Bernardi, Giulio Paolini. Opere su carta: un laboratorio gestuale per la percezione dell’immagine (Turin: Prinp Editore, 2017), p. 116, col. repr. p. 119. |
