Cariatide, 1984
GPO-0516
Caryatid
Plaster casts, torn colour photo print
Two casts h 182 cm each, overall dimensions 182 x 124 x 57 cm
Lorenzo and Marilena Bonomo Collection
From 2019 on loan at Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome
The two parts of the torn photographic enlargement must be arranged so that the photographic capitals can just be glimpsed, in order to make the analogy with the subject evident.
The plaster casts of two Corinthian columns bear the two torn parts of the photograph of a previous variant of Cariatide (1979, GPO-0418). In that variant, on the contrary, a sheet of paper was stretched between two columns so that the figure drawn on the sheet would appear to be complete in its profile (the figure found its arm, outlined on one extremity of the sheet, only when that latter was correctly stretched between the two columns).
The relationship between the two moments is enacted precisely by way of the tearing of the photograph, which recalls the previous episode through its negation: that is, by way of the opposite gesture (of division) with respect to the one (of reunion) underlying the first version. The void between the columns recalls in absentia the full of the previous work.
Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, Jeune homme, marchant, de profil à droite, early 19th century, black chalk and stump with white highlights on blue paper, 59.3 x 36.1 cm, Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne; reproduction from Dessins français du XIXe siècle du Musée Bonnat à Bayonne. LXIX exposition du Cabinet des Dessin, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Musée du Louvre (Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1979), p. 82, plate 112.
| 1984 | Spoleto, Palazzo Rosari Spada, XXVII Festival dei Due Mondi, Giulio Paolini. La Casa di Lucrezio, 27 June - 16 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 4 p. 30 (incompletely dated “1979”), not repr. |
| 1986-87 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, Markus Lüpertz, Giulio Paolini: figure, colonne, finestre, 19 December 1986 - 29 March 1987, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 56 p. 117, repr. pp. 128-129 (exhibition view, with detail). |
| 1990 | Bari, Galleria Marilena Bonomo, Giulio Paolini, from 18 April. |
| 2018-19 | Milan, Fondazione Carriero, Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale, 26 October 2018 - 10 February 2019, col. repr. vol. 1 pp. 114-115 (exhibition view), 175. |
| • | Rosenfest Berlin 1984, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, Daadgalerie, 1984, repr. p. 134. |
| • | Paolini. Melanconia ermetica, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Galerie Maeght Lelong, 1985, col. repr. p. 9 (erroneously dated “1977”), repr. p. 18 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984). |
| • | B. Paulino-Néto, “Giulio Paolini”, in Beaux-Arts Magazine 25 (Paris), June, 1985, col. repr. p. 38 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984). |
| • | Premio del Golfo 1985, exhibition catalogue, Lerici, Castello Monumentale (La Spezia: Biennale d’Arte Editrice, 1985), repr. p. 59. |
| • | Incrocio: un racconto, exhibition catalogue, Erice, “La Salerniana” (Milan: Nuove edizioni Gabriele Mazzotta, 1987), col. repr. p. 25 (exhibition view Rivoli 1986-87). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Il “Teatro” dell’opera, exhibition catalogue, Pesaro, Galleria Franca Mancini (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1991), col. repr. p. 51 (exhibition view Bari 1990). |
| • | Italia 2000. Arte e sistema dell’Arte, edited by A. Bonito Oliva (Madrid-Milan: ARCO Madrid and Giampaolo Prearo Editore, 2000), col. repr. p. 36 (exhibition view Bari 1990). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Premio Internazionale Koinè 2000 alla carriera, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Palazzo Forti (Milan: Electa, 2001), repr. p. 58 (exhibition view Bari 1990). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 516 p. 527, col. repr. (exhibition view Bari 1990). |
| • | ...but, where is Bari? Percorso nell'arte contemporanea. La Galleria Bonomo dal 1971 / A Journey in contemporary art. The Bonomo Gallery since 1971 (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2010), col. repr. pp. 57 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984), 100 (exhibition view Bari 1990). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. p. 283 (exhibition view Milan 2018). |
| • | S.M.S. Cammarata, “Strappare una foto. Le Cariatidi di Giulio Paolini”, in Studi di scultura. Età moderna e contemporanea 6, no. 6 (Naples), 2024, pp. 277-280, 281, 287, 288, 290, col. repr. p. 279 (exhibition view Bari 1990). |
