Galleria, 1974
GPO-0275
Gallery
Collage on photographic reproductions
Five framed parts 60 x 50 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Signed, titled, and dated on the verso of the fifth element, centre: "Giulio Paolini / Galleria / 1974"
Noire Collection
The installation of the work is not restricted by a predetermined arrangement: depending on the features of the space that is available, the individual elements can be lined up in a row, with the same amount of space between them, which can vary from venue to venue, or else freely distributed across one or more walls.
The enigmatic "gallery" of portraits presents five musicians, who are almost entirely hidden, however, by a collage that changes each time and makes them unrecognizable. The fragments of torn images, some of which are in colour, applied to the reproductions, reveal the succession, from the first to the last of the following: the interior of a theatre, so that the ceiling lamp is in the same place as the head of the half-hidden figure; a flame against the black background that "consumes", by blackening it, the image of the musician; an oval frame around a black background; the detail of a photographic studio with several spotlights; the wide stream of water from a motorboat seen from above, striking the figure in the manner of a waterfall.
The work resulted in a print edition with the same title, made in 1991 (GPE-0076).
| 2019 | Turin, Noire Gallery, Giulio Paolini. Promemoria, 12 April - 10 June. |
| • | Unione musicale. Stagione di concerti 1983-84 (Turin: Unione Musicale, 1983), repr. pp. 119-123 (titled “Galleria, variazioni di ritratti di musicisti”). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 275 p. 286, repr. |
