Senza titolo, 1961

The first large-scale work, it consists of an "empty wooden stretcher, which by convention circumscribes a space”, as the artist explains; “the canvas is replaced by a sheet of transparent plastic, but a smaller canvas is strung up in the void of the stretcher as though it were the 'subject' of the painting'".1
The same theme was also developed in two variants made at the same time (GPO-0008, GPO-0009), smaller in size and with an unnailed canvas trimmed along the sides.
Paolini had originally, to the left of the canvas, applied some paint tubes and a paintbrush to the polyethylene sheet; these too were wrapped in transparent plastic. Soon afterwards – the artist does not remember when exactly, but in all likelihood before entering the work in the Premio Lissone exhibition – Paolini chose to omit these elements.
The work is part of the study on the relationship between the support and an object that by convention is preliminary to or implicit in the realization of a painting. In the artist's words: “The goal was to come to terms with the painting vis-à-vis what the idea of the picture could stimulate or suggest. Indeed, in the sense of trying to grasp the reason for the physical presence of the picture as an object. […] It was the attempt to provide a work with a form, without the disappointment of seeing it completed. Without the intimidating burden of its meaning”.2

1 G. Paolini in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 22 (revised translation, republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant [Milan: Fondazione Prada, 200], p. 100), reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019), p. 22.
2 G. Paolini interviewed by N. Orengo, in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, p. 5; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 165.