Autoritratto, 1969
GPO-0177
Self-Portrait
Photo emulsion on canvas
38 x 35 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso, upper stretcher bar, centre: “Giulio Paolini / Autoritratto 1969”
Present whereabouts unknown
The photographic canvas reproduces an illustration taken from a feature story on Istanbul published in a magazine from that period. In it we see an elderly man wearing a white turban, posing in front of the portal of a monumental building. The detail that drew Giulio Paolini's attention, and convinced him to select the image, is the rectangular object that the anonymous character has with him, which can be interpreted as either a painting or a portfolio. On this is based the identification with the alleged artist, sealed by the designation of the work as a "self-portrait".
| 1969 | Venice, Galleria del Leone, Giulio Paolini, from 3 September. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), repr. p. 295. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 177 p. 194, repr. |
| • | M. Dantini, "Gradus ad Parnassum. Giulio Paolini, ‘Autoritratto’, 1969", in Palinsesti. Contemporary Italian Art On-Line Journal 1, no. 2 (Udine), 2011, pp. 1-11; republished in Id., Geopolitiche dell'arte (Milan: Christian Marinotti Edizioni, 2012), pp. 89-111, repr. p. 90. |
| • | T. Migliore, "Ritratti ‘portratti’. Giulio Paolini e l’identikit dell’artista", in L’immagine che siamo. Ritratto e soggettività nell’estetica contemporanea, edited by M.G. Di Monte, M. Di Monte and H. de Riedmatten (Rome: Carocci editore, 2014), p. 134, not repr. |
| • | P.E. Antognoli Viti, Firenze 1977. Luciano Bartolini, Michael Buthe, Klaus vom Bruch, Martin Kippenberger, Marcel Odenbach, Anna Oppermann, Ulrike Rosenbach etc. (Berlin: Archive Books, 2015), p. 137, repr. p. 136. |
| • | L. Vecere, In assenza. Appunti sull’autoritratto contemporaneo (Pisa: University Press, 2017), p. 81, repr. |
| • | A. Soldaini, G. Paolini, “In dialogo”, in Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 91. |
