Et.quid.amabo.nisi.quod.ænigma.est?, 1969
GPO-0183
Paint on cotton fabric
Banner 67.4 x 425 cm, overall dimensions variable
FER Collection
From 1976 to 1991 on loan at Neue Galerie, Staatliche und Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Kassel
The work was only presented as a banner out in the open on the occasion of its first exhibition in Como in 1969. Since the 2000s, the artist has envisioned its installation exclusively indoors. The fabric is hung from a wall, with one end at a height of approximately 180-200 cm, and the other end falling to the ground freely, leaving only some of the writing visible.
Written on the strip of fabric in dark silver metallic paint is the Latin question “What shall I love if not the enigma?” which is featured on a 1911 self-portrait by Giorgio de Chirico.
The work is part of a group of works made during the same year (GPO-0183, GPO-0184, GPO-0185, GPO-0187) characterized by enigmatic Latin quotations written on banners or on metal plaques, based on a paradox. As the artist explains, the Latin phrases "recited and divulged with the emphasis of a banner or a sign" actually refer "to an order of private contemplation". "The transcriptions are pronouncements, professions of faith, but also the awareness of their unrepeatability, confined as they are in an ancient language, distant from all possible verification or reappropriation”,1 Paolini remarks.
The work was only presented as a banner out in the open on the occasion of its first exhibition in Como in 1969. Since the 2000s, the artist has envisioned its installation exclusively indoors. The fabric is hung from a wall with one end, and the other end falling to the ground freely, leaving only some of the writing visible.
The same Latin phrase was also used for a print edition made during the same year, in which it is featured on a calling card as the "professional name” after the artist's (GPE-0004).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 183 p. 198.
Quotation from Giorgio de Chirico, Portrait de l’artiste par lui-même, 1910-11, oil on canvas, 72.5 x 55 cm, Private collection.
| 1969 | Como, Campo urbano, 21 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works n. p., repr. |
| 1981 | Cologne, Rheinhallen der Kölner Messe, Westkunst: Zeitgenössische Kunst seit 1939, 30 May - 16 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 819 p. 487, repr. pp. 323, 819. |
| 2009 | Ulm, Stadtregal Ulm, Sammlung FER Collection, from 2 October 2009, col. repr. (exhibition view; erroneously dated "1996"), commentary by P. Maenz (taken from the catalogue Mannheim 1977) (catalogue in the form of loose entries about the artists in the collection). |
| • | G. Paolini in Campo urbano, exhibition catalogue, Como, 1969, n. pag.; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 268; G. Semeraro, Parola d'artista. Storia, Natura, Società. Scritti di artisti del XX secolo e di oggi (Florence: Barbès Editore, 2009), pp. 149-150. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, edited by M. Disch (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 183 p. 198. |
| • | G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), pp. 103-104 (extract from the unpublished interview with A. Ladopoulou, April 2005). |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with A. Madesani, in Giulio Paolini. Teoria delle apparenze. Opere 1969-2015, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria Fumagalli, 2018, p. 11. |
| • | Catalogo Bolaffi d’arte moderna, vol. 2: Segnalati Bolaffi 1970 (Turin: Giulio Bolaffi Editore, 1970), repr. p. 114 (outdoor installation at the river). |
| • | G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 88, repr. no. 81 pp. 86-87; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by Id. (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003), p. 292; reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019). |
| • | M. Fagiolo, "Glossario", in Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), p. 23, repr. no. 109. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Mannheim, Mannheimer Kunstverein, 1977, commentary by P. Maenz p. 36, repr. p. 37. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Premio Bolaffi 1980 (Turin: Giulio Bolaffi Editore, 1980), repr. p. 10. |
| • | D. Elliott, "Paolini’s early work: language and dialectic", in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1980, p. 7, not repr. |
| • | Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), pp. 297-298, not repr. |
| • | W.M. Faust, "Et quid amabo: Notizen zu Arbeiten von Giulio Paolini", in Giulio Paolini. Del bello intelligibile, exhibition catalogue, Bielefeld, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 1982, p. 18, repr. |
| • | B. Blistène, "L’Arte Povera dans les collections du Musée national d’art moderne", in Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne 13 (Paris), 1984, p. 86, not repr. |
| • | L. Busine, Les Doublures de Giulio Paolini (Brussels: Edition Lebeer-Hossmann, 1986), p. 62, not repr. |
| • | M. Scholz-Hänsel, "Das imaginäre Museum Giulio Paolinis", in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 2, p. 14, repr. p. 8. |
| • | F. Poli, "Note di lettura", in Id., Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), p. 34, not repr.; republished in Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), pp. 55, 57, not repr. |
| • | M. Fagiolo Dell’Arco, "Giulio Paolini, ‘Villa Medici 1331996’", in Giulio Paolini. Correspondances, exhibition catalogue, Rome, French Academy, Villa Medici (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 1996), p. 24, repr. p. 23. |
| • | Verso i Settanta (1968-70). Arte in Italia negli anni ’70, exhibition catalogue, Erice, "La Salerniana", ex Convento di San Carlo (Milan: Edizioni Charta, 1996), repr. p. 143. |
| • | M. Dalla Bernardina, "Les autoportraits de Giulio Paolini", in Ligeia 29-32 (Paris), October 1999 - June 2000, p. 10, not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), repr. pp. 268-269. |
| • | A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 440, not repr. |
| • | Ugo Mulas. La scena dell’arte, exhibition catalogue, Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2007), repr. pp. 440-441. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 183 p. 198, repr. |
| • | R. Ferrario, Giulio Paolini. Un viaggio a distanza (Busto Arsizio: Nomos Edizioni, 2009), p. 57, repr. pp. 58-59. |
| • | D. Lancioni, "Profilo biografico", in Giulio Paolini. Gli uni e gli altri. L'enigma dell'ora, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Milan: Skira editore, 2010), p. 70, not repr. |
| • | M. Dantini, "Ytalya subjecta. Narrazioni identitarie e critica d'arte 1963-2009", in Il confine evanescente. Arte italiana 1960-2010, edited by G. Guercio and A. Mattirolo (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2010), pp. 285, 288, not repr. |
| • | F. Pola, "L’immagine mediata", in Imagine. Nuove immagini nell’arte italiana 1960-1969, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2016), p. 196, repr. p. 222 (exhibition views Como 1969). |
| • | Mazzoleni 1986-2016: 30 anni d’arte 30 artisti italiani / 30 Years of Art 30 Italian Artists, edited by G.L. Marcone (Turin-London-Poggibonsi: Mazzoleni and Carlo Cambi Editore, 2016), repr. p. XXXV (exhibition view Como 1969). |
| • | S. Menegoi, "Andata e/o ritorno", in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria Christian Stein, 2017, p. 86, not repr. |
| • | A. Madesani, "Teoria delle apparenze", in Giulio Paolini. Teoria delle apparenze. Opere 1969-2015, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria Fumagalli, 2018, p. 11, not repr. |
| • | Nascita di una Nazione. Tra Guttuso, Fontana e Schifano, exhibition catalogue, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi (Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2018), repr. p. 141. |
| • | A. Cortellessa, "Un appuntamento mancato", in Giulio Paolini / Giorgio de Chirico, edited by Id. (Turin: Nino Aragno editore, 2019), p. 48, repr. (exhibition view Como 1969). |
| • | De Chirico, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Palazzo Reale (Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2019), p. 24, repr. p. 38 (exhibition view Como 1969). |
| • | G. Ciavoliello, Fuori dal coro. L’arte libera dalle ideologie al tempo della contestazione (Milan: Christian Marinotti Edizioni, 2023), p. 22, not repr. |
| • | L. Canova, “Negli abissi del tempo. Giulio Paolini e Giorgio de Chirico”, in Metafisica. Quaderni della Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico 22-23 (Imola: Maretti Editore, 2023), p. 113, repr. no. 1 p. 114 (exhibition view Como 1969). |
| • | S. Smets, “Looking at Latin 1911–1965–2019”, in Jolcel 8 (Ghent), biannual online journal, 2023, pp. 115-117, repr. p. 114 (exhibition view Como 1969). |
| • | B. Casini, “Mythology Reinterpreted. A Journey through Ancient inspiration in Modern & Contemporary Art”, in Mythology Reinterpreted. A Journey through Ancient inspiration in Modern & Contemporary Art, exhibition catalogue, London, Mazzoleni Art, 2024, p. 13, repr. (exhibition view Como 1969). |
