Equivalenza, 1975
GPO-0279
Equivalence
Pencil and nails on primed canvas
160 x 240 cm
Signed and titled on the verso of the fourth canvas, upper right: “Giulio Paolini / Equivalenza”
Hauff Family Collection, Stuttgart
Four primed canvases joined at the back to form a single large painting feature the drawing of three paintings seen in perspective (the likeness is further reinforced by the actual nails placed along the vertical sides). The one in the middle repeats the image of the work itself.
“My use of perspective is an artifice, an attempt to create a distance with the presence of the painting as such. This artifice, made evident, gives me a chance to move the scene of the work away from the physical limit of vision, and to acknowledge the existence of a curtain that appears before our eyes”1, Paolini remarks.
The same theme was developed in three other variants made during the same year (GPO-0280, GPO-0281, GPO-0282).
1 G. Paolini interviewed by F. Pasini, in L’Illustrazione italiana 5, no. 24 (Milan, November 1985), p. 21; statement revisited by the artist, reprinted in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), pp. 207-208.
| 1975 | Munich, Galerie Art in Progress, Giulio Paolini, 18 April - 21 May. |
| 1986 | Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Giulio Paolini, 20 September - 2 November, cited in the checklist of exhibited works vol. 4 no. 23 p. 52, repr. vol. 1 p. 50. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with F. Pasini, in L’Illustrazione italiana 5, no. 24 (Milan), November, 1985, p. 21; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), pp. 207-208. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Werke und Schriften 1960-1980 (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1981), repr. n. pag. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 279 p. 290, col. repr. |
| • | ”Hypothesis for an Exhibition”, exhibition catalogue, New York, Dominique Lévy, 2014, repr. p. 106. |
