Hi-fi, 1965
GPO-0083
Enamel on primed canvas and on canvas mounted on wooden silhouette, easel
Canvas 200 x 230 cm, silhouette 137 x 53 cm, overall dimensions 300 x 230 cm
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the canvas, upper left: “Giulio Paolini / Hi Fi 1965”
Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Weimar
Acquired in 1993, inventory no. PM G 17
The wooden shape covered in canvas and placed on the ground opposite a large painting is a life-size reproduction of a painter at work, in a slightly curved position. Broad brushwork using black enamel paint covers everything, leaving the profile of the shape uncovered on the painting, however. The title alludes to the high-fidelity with which the work reproduces the painter at work, ironically referring to informal poetics, on the one hand, and the Balzachian Frenhofer, on the other.
In the gap between the shape and its double is a reflection on the distance between the artwork and its author. Paolini's comment on the matter in 1968 was: “What I intend as dignity, as the 'essential quality' of an artist, is not found in the solution of the experience, the project cannot be reduced to the object, the imagination eludes the image, I am not the painting."1
1 G. Paolini, "Una lettera sul tempo", in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Galleria Notizie, 1968, p. 2; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House,1995), p. 33.
| 1965 | Turin, Galleria Notizie, Giulio Paolini, from 11 November, cited in the checklist of exhibited works, repr. (detail). |
| 1986 | Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Giulio Paolini, 20 September - 2 November, vol. 4: La Visione/Die Vision, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 6 p. 51; vol. 1: Lo Studio/Das Atelier, repr. p. 40 (detail). |
| 1988-89 | Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Giulio Paolini, 24 November 1988 - 26 February 1989, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 95, repr. no. 12 (detail). |
| 1989 | Cologne, Rheinhallen der Kölner Messe, Bilderstreit. Widerspruch, Einheit und Fragment in der Kunst seit 1960, 8 April - 28 June, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 537 p. 526, repr. p. 282. |
| 1993 | London, Hayward Gallery, Gravity & Grace. The changing condition of Sculpture 1965-1975, 21 January - 14 March, col. repr. p. 73; repr. in the exhibition guide. |
| 1994 | Weimar, Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar, Schlossmuseum, Der Fürst schmollt – Moderne trifft Klassik: Werke aus der Sammlung Paul Maenz, 10 June - 31 July, no catalogue; repr. in the exhibition brochure. |
| 1996 | Weimar, Kunsthaus Apolda and Weimarer Schloss, Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques, 27 September - 27 October, no catalogue. |
| 1999 | Weimar, Neues Museum, Auffrischender Wind aus wechselnden Richtungen. Internationale Avantgarde seit 1960: Die Sammlung Paul Maenz, 1 January - 31 December, repr. no. 76 p. 111, catalogue entry by H. Dickel pp. 113-114 (with a mistake in the list of exhibitions). |
| 2000 | Bremen, Neues Museum Weserburg, Sinn + Sinnlichkeit. Körper und Geist im Bild, 21 May - 27 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 139, col. repr. p. 95. |
| 2002-03 | Weimar, Neues Museum, Vis-à-vis. Malerische Positionen aus den letzten sechs Jahrzehnten, 7 July 2002 - 21 April 2003; no catalogue. |
| 2003 | Milan, Fondazione Prada, Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, 29 October - 18 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 399, repr. p. 156. |
| 2017-18 | Miami, Institute of Contemporary Art, The Everywhere Studio, 1 December 2017 - 26 February 2018, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 79 p. 279, col. repr. p. 67, referred to in the text by G. Moreno pp. 109-111. |
| • | G. Celant, “Crónica de Italia. Giulio Paolini y Piero Dorazio”, in Forma nueva el inmueble 14 (Madrid), March, p. 64, not repr.; republished as “Prima della ‘pittura’, Giulio Paolini”, in Marcatrè 30-33 (Milan), July, 1967, p. 269, not repr., and later in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 208. |
| • | G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 42, repr. no. 40 p. 47 (detail); republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), p. 136; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | M. Fagiolo, “Glossario”, in Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), p. 21, repr. no. 59 (detail). |
| • | C. Owens, “Giulio Paolini”, in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, New York, Marian Goodman Gallery, 1987, n. pag., repr. no. 4 (detail). |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 129 (detail). |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 68. |
| • | A. Zevi, “Three Artistic Generations in Contemporary Italy” in Three Artistic Generations in Contemporary Italy, exhibition catalogue, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, 1993, p. 87, repr. (detail). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. pp. 21, 206. |
| • | B. von Bismarck, Bruce Nauman, der wahre Künstler / The true artist (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), p. 51, repr. p. 48 (detail). |
| • | Die Sammlung Paul Maenz Neues Museum Weimar. Band I: Objekte, Bilder, Installationen (Weimar/Ostfildern-Ruit: Neues Museum and Hatje Cantz Verlag, 1999), repr. cat. no. 76 p. 111, entry by H. Dickel pp. 113-114 (with incorrect list of exhibitions). |
| • | A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 288, not repr. |
| • | M.T. Roberto, “Le due città. Luciano Pistoi tra Torino e Roma, 1962-68”, in M. Bandini, M.C. Mundici, M.T. Roberto, Luciano Pistoi: "inseguo un mio disegno" (Turin: Hopefulmonster editore, 2008), pp. 41-42, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 83 p. 113, col. repr. |
| • | R. Ferrario, Giulio Paolini. Un viaggio a distanza (Busto Arsizio: Nomos Edizioni, 2009), p. 38, repr. p. 39. |
| • | B. von Bismarck, Auftritt als Künstler – Funktion eines Mythos (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2010), p. 83, repr. p. 83 (detail). |
| • | Arte povera 2011, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2011), col. repr. no. 312 p. 285. |
| • | T. Migliore, “Ritratti ‘portratti’. Giulio Paolini e l’identikit dell’artista”, in L’immagine che siamo. Ritratto e soggettività nell’estetica contemporanea, edited by M.G. Di Monte, M. Di Monte, and H. de Riedmatten (Rome: Carocci editore, 2014), p. 127, repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Rome, MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma and London, Whitechapel Gallery (Rome: Quodlibet Edizioni, 2014), repr. p. 21. |
| • | P. Repetto, “Oltre il visibile”, in Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., exhibition catalogue, Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno (Alba: Fondazione Mancini Carini, 2022), p. 36, repr. pp. 158-159 (exhibition view Rome 1988). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 206 (exhibition view Rome 1988), col. repr. p. 237 (exhibition view Milan 2003). |
