A mezz’aria, 1998
GPO-0818
Midair
Pencil on primed canvas, crumpled xerox reproduction, black pencil
Nine parts 40 x 40 cm each, overall dimensions 140 x 120 cm
Massimo De Carlo, Milan
Nine canvases arranged to form a painting reproduce, in the two lower rows, the perspectival drawing of the of the painting itself. The canvas in the middle of the first row at the top holds up against the wall a crumpled colour reproduction of a blue sky, pierced by a black pencil.
In the artist’s own words: “If on the one hand, in the drawing on the canvases, the pencil manages to miraculously overturn the vertical plane of the painting into an illusory space, on the other, the real pencil that pierces the photographic reproduction carries out an absolute miracle: it succeeds in holding the sky above the painting”.1
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2007), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 818 p. 839.
| 1998-99 | Brescia, Galleria Massimo Minini, Giulio Paolini. Big Bang, 2 December 1998 - 30 January 1999. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2007), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 818 p. 839. |
| • | Il critico come curatore, edited by M. Bortolotti (Cinisello Balsamo-Milan: Silvana Editoriale and Artshow Edizioni, 2003), col. repr. pp. 112-113 (exhibition view Brescia 1998). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 818 p. 839, col. repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. pp. 232-233 (exhibition view Brescia 1998). |
