Senza titolo, 1964
GPO-0054
Untitled
Plywood panels, nylon thread
200 x 150 cm (two parts: 199.7 x 149.5 cm, 49.5 x 36 cm)
Signed and dated on the verso of the large panel on a white paper square: “Giulio Paolini 1964”
Margherita Stein Collection. Property Fondazione per l'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, on loan to Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin
Acquired by Fondazione CRT in 2001
Located at the centre of a plywood panel is a smaller, rectangular panel suspended from the former one by a nylon thread. The work is part of the research that distinguishes the artist's output in 1964, characterized by simple plywood panels that when placed on the ground or hung from the wall, in the artist's words, “‘replaced’ the presence of pictures on the walls and analyzed the purely conventional rapports of an exhibition” (1973).1 By expanding the gesture that merely suggests the possible vision of a painting, chosen by Paolini from the very outset as a paradigm of his own exploration, these works pave the way to the question that the painting raises at the moment of its exhibition and therefore its perception.
There are two variants of this work, made in the same year, which differ slightly in the size and proportions of the two panels (GPO-0052, GPO-0053).
1 G. Paolini, “Note di lavoro”, in NAC 3 (Milan), March, 1973, p. 10.
| 1971 (?) | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Giulio Paolini, Jannis Kounellis, July. |
| 1972 | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Christian Stein 1966-72, from 10 November. |
| 1989 | Milan, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Verso l’Arte Povera. Momenti e aspetti degli anni Sessanta in Italia, 20 January - 27 March, touring to: Lyon, ELAC Espace Lyonnais d’Art Contemporain, 24 June - 5 September, repr. p. 116 (version with a small square panel and a different large panel). |
| 1992-93 | Villeurbanne, Le Nouveau Musée, La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien, 24 June - 31 October, touring to: Tolouse, C.R.A.C. Midi-Pyrénées, Labège-Innopole, 19 January - 28 March 1993, repr. p. 170, catalogue entry p. 286 (with incorrect dimensions and bibliography referred to another version, cf. no. GPO-0052). |
| 2000-01 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Arte povera in collezione, 6 December 2000 - 25 March 2001, col. repr. pp. 97 (exhibition view), 201, catalogue entry by M. Disch p. 200. |
| 2002 | Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, Arte Povera: Art from Italy 1967-2002, 23 August - 11 November, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 138, col. repr. p. 92, commentary by M. Disch p. 93, referred to in the text by C. Christov-Bakargiev p. 16. |
| 2005 | Toyota, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Arte Povera, 19 March - 12 June, cat. no. 34 p. 233, col. repr. p. 130. |
| 2008-09 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Una stanza tutta per sé, 2 April 2008 - 18 January 2009, no catalogue. |
| 2010-11 | Valencia, IVAM Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Colección Christian Stein. Una historia del arte italiano, 7 October 2010 - 23 January 2011, touring to: Lugano, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, 12 March - 15 May, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 347, col. repr. no. 40 p. 159. |
| 2015 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, exhibited in room 16, from 28 October, as part of the installation of the collection. |
| 2018 | Saint Petersburg, Hermitage, Arte Povera. A Creative Revolution,17 May - 16 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 29 p. 116, col. repr. no. 29 p. 77. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with N. Orengo, “Giulio Paolini. Dipingere la pittura”, in Fuoricampo 1, no. 2 (Turin), June, 1973, pp. 3, 5; partly republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 166. |
| • | La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée and Art Édition, 1992), repr. p. 170, catalogue entry p. 286 (with incorrect dimensions and with bibliography referred to another version, cfr. GPO-0052). |
| • | F. Poli, Minimalismo, Arte Povera, Arte Concettuale (Bari: Editori Laterza, 1995), repr. p. 72. |
| • | Arte povera in collezione (Rivoli-Milan: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and Edizioni Charta, 2000), catalogue entry by M. Disch p. 200, col. repr. pp. 201, 97 (exhibition view Rivoli 2000-01). |
| • | Enrico Castellani, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Prada, 2001, repr. p. 310. |
| • | Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. La Residenza Sabauda - La Collezione, edited by I. Gianelli and M. Beccaria (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2003), commentary by G. Verzotti p. 286, col. repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), col. repr. p. 109. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 54 p. 87, col. repr. |
| • | Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. La Residenza Sabauda – La Collezione (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), p. 406, col. repr. pp. 408, 416-417 (exhibition view Rivoli 2008). |
| • | Dieci anni di acquisizioni per la GAM di Torino 1998-2008, edited by P.G. Castagnoli and E. Volpato (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2008), col. repr. cat. no. 84. |
| • | Collezione Christian Stein. Una storia dell'arte italiana / A History of Italian Art (Valencia-Lugano-Milan: IVAM Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Museo Cantonale d'Arte and Mondadori Electa, 2010), col. repr. p. 15. |
| • | Dieci anni e oltre. La collezione della Fondazione per l'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – CRT per Torino e il Piemonte, edited by M. Beccaria and E. Volpato (Berlin: Archive Books, 2010), p. 362, col. repr. p. 366. |
| • | Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. La storia e le collezioni, edited by C. Christov-Bakargiev and M. Beccaria, Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2023), vol. II, p. 818 (referred to in the text by M. Beccaria), col. repr. p. 823. |
