Mimesi, 1975
GPO-0286
Mimesis
Photo prints in plexiglas cases
Two parts 34.5 x 25 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of one of the two photo prints, upper centre: “Giulio Paolini / Mimesi / 1975”
Private collection, Biella
Unlike the versions of Mimesi consisting of two sculpted busts facing each other (GPO-0283, GPO-0317, GPO-0318), in the three photographic variants (GPO-0284, GPO-0285, GPO-0286) the specular confrontation is formulated by two portraits, framed in plexiglas cases of the exact same size as the portraits, and placed on two opposite walls. The life-sized, colour subject taken from an old master painting is distinguished by the fact that it is always a face gazing at us: "it is looking into the lens, at us and/or towards us",1 Paolini remarks. In this case the images reproduce the Ritratto d’uomo (1475-76) by Antonello da Messina.
1 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. 284 p. 296.
Antonello da Messina, Ritratto d’uomo, 1475-76, oil on wood, 35.6 x 25.4 cm, The National Gallery, London; reproduction from L’opera completa di Antonello da Messina. Classici dell’arte 10 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1967), plate XIII.
| 1977 | New York, Sperone-Westwater-Fischer, Giulio Paolini, 15 January - 15 February. |
| 1979 | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Quodlibet. Fabro, Merz, Paolini, from 5 July. |
| 1980 | Ghent, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Kunst in Europa na ’68, 21 June - 31 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 174, repr. pp. 140-141. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 284 p. 296. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 286 p. 297, col. repr. |
| • | S. Bann, “Apoteosi di Omero. Da Paolini a Ingres”, in S. Bann et al., Il passato al presente. In tema 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), p. 132, not repr. |
