Lo studio, 1968
GPO-0156
The Studio
Photo emulsion on canvas, primed canvas, nylon thread
200 x 200 cm (two parts: 200 x 200 cm, 40 x 40 cm)
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the photo canvas, upper stretcher bar, centre: “Giulio Paolini / Lo studio 1968”
Private collection, Milan
Dropping down at the centre of a large canvas is a smaller photograph, hanging from a nylon thread, which reproduces a detail of Jan Vermeer's Allegory of Painting (1666-68).
“The outlined hand of the painter Vermeer becomes the hand of the painter”1 – writes Paolini in the first written comment on the work – where the “painter” is the Painter of all ages and at the same time the author himself. Like in other "self-portraits" from the same year, Paolini offers an identification with a painter from the past, in order to subtract his own identity from its role and instead assume it “to fill an elective, historical, and hypothetical role”2.
The work is part of a group of works consisting of a detail from an Old Master painting, which is enlarged so that it matches the natural size of the subject (GPO-0153, GPO-0155, GPO-0156, GPO-0157). Attention is turned towards a "certain type of image that is not presented for what it is culturally, but, along with this, for something more complete, more relative to the image itself”3. “The reference, the overlapping in time and in space of the images in their mental relationships with vision are left to a perspective that it is up to the viewer to determine”,4 Paolini remarks.
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2001), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 156 p. 176.
2 G. Paolini in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 75 (revised translation, republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant [Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003], p. 234), reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019), p. 75.
3 G. Paolini in C. Lonzi, Autoritratto (Bari: De Donato Editore,1969), p. 327, reprint (Milan: Et al./Edizioni, 2010), p. 250, English edition (Brussels-London: Divided Publishing, 2021), p. 287.
4 G. Paolini interviewed by M. Bandini, in Prospects. Note d’arte contemporanea redatte da Luciano Inga-Pin 1 (Milan), March-April, 1972, n. pag.; republished in Giulio Paolini, 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), p. 378.
Johannes Vermeer, De Schilderkunst, 1666-68, oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
| 1969 | Milan, Galleria De Nieubourg, Giulio Paolini. 2121969, from 21 February, repr. |
| 1971 | Dortmund, Museum am Ostwall, Elf Italiener Heute, 28 February - 18 April, not repr. |
| 1974 | New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Projects: Giulio Paolini, 21 March - 14 April, no catalogue; exhibition copy on paper. |
| • | G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. 2121969, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria De Nieubourg, 1969; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 223. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with C. Lonzi, in C. Lonzi, Autoritratto (Bari: De Donato Editore, 1969), p. 327; in the reprint (Milan: Et al./Edizioni, 2010), p. 250; English edition (Brussels-London: Divided Publiishing, 2021), p. 287. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with M. Bandini, in Prospects. Note d’arte contemporanea redatte da Luciano Inga-Pin 1 (Milan), March-April, 1972, n. pag.; republished in Giulio Paolini, 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), p. 378. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2001), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 156 p. 176. |
| • | M. Volpi Orlandini, in Giulio Paolini. Vedo, exhibition catalogue, Rome, QUI arte contemporanea, 1970, not repr.; republished in Giulio Paolini. Vedo, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Galleria Notizie, 1970, not repr.; Id., La retina e l’inconscio. Note di arte contemporanea (Palermo: Palumbo Editore, 1973), p. 148, not repr.; Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 306. |
| • | M. Volpi Orlandini, "Paolini: ‘nuova confutazione del tempo’", in QUI arte contemporanea 8 (Rome), June, 1972, repr. p. 58. |
| • | G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 75, repr. no. 70 p. 77; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), p. 252; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | M. Fagiolo, "Glossario", in Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), p. 20, repr. no. 99. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Mannheim, Mannheimer Kunstverein, 1977, commentary by P. Maenz p. 34, repr. p. 35. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Atto unico in tre quadri, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Studio Marconi (Milan: Gabriele Mazzotta editore, 1979), repr. p. 77. |
| • | P. Tedeschi, "In una casa milanese. I figli di Burri e Fontana", in Vogue Italia (Milan), October II, 1981, col. repr. pp. 266, 269 (installation view at the home of the collector Tettamanti, Milan); republished in Vogue España, February, 1982; Area 18 (Milan), September-October, 1984. |
| • | M. Scholz-Hänsel, "Das imaginäre Museum Giulio Paolinis", in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 2, pp. 10, 11, not repr. |
| • | Predilezioni. Tre decenni di avanguardia dalla raccolta di Riccardo Tettamanti 1960-1970-1980 (Milan: Riccardo Tettamanti, 1988), repr. n. pag. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), repr. p. 223. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 156 p. 176, repr. |
| • | R. Ferrario, Giulio Paolini. Un viaggio a distanza (Busto Arsizio: Nomos Edizioni, 2009), p. 67, not repr. |
| • | B. Yasar, "‘Hypothesis for an Exhibition’", in "Hypothesis for an Exhibition", exhibition catalogue, New York, Dominique Lévy Gallery, 2014, p. 72, repr. p. 73. |
| • | B. Satre, Giulio Paolini. Essere o non essere, 1994-95. In collezione 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), pp. 34, 36, repr. p. 39. |
| • | E. Franz, "‘Vedo e non vedo’", in E. Franz et al., Giulio Paolini. Vedo e non vedo. In tema 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), p. 24, repr. p. 22. |
| • | F. Fergonzi, "’Trasparenza etimologica’. Per una rilettura di Una lettera sul tempo (1968) di Giulio Paolini", in Giulio Paolini. Expositio, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Museo Poldi Pezzoli (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2016), pp. 31, 35, not repr. |
| • | D. Soutif, "Filigrane. Paolini, il primo quadro e la storia dell’arte", in S. Bann et al., Il passato al presente. In tema 2 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), pp. 85-90, 93, 94, repr. p. 82; republished in French in Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne 137, Autumn, 2016, pp. 75-76, repr. p. 74. |
| • | N. Cullinan, "Towards a Poor Theater. Giulio Paolini’s Scenographies in the 1970s / Per un teatro povero. Le scenografie di Giulio Paolini negli anni ‘70", in TV70: Francesco Vezzoli guarda la RAI, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Prada, 2017, pp. 219-220, not repr. |
| • | G. Zanchetti, L. P. Nicoletti, Enrico Cattaneo. Fotografare un’idea (Milano: Silvana Editoriale 2023), repr. p. 28 (exhibition view Milan 1969). |
