Itaca, 1974-75
GPO-0319
Ithaca
Collage on photo print and on paper
Twenty-five framed parts 38 x 38 cm each, overall dimensions 200 x 200 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso of the twenty-fifth element: “Giulio Paolini / Itaca / 1974-75”
Present whereabouts unknown
Twenty-five photographs of works by the artist, each of which applied to the centre of a blank sheet and in turn partially covered by a small white square, are arranged in chronological order, according to a spiral reading that starts from the first component at the upper left and goes all the way to the central element.1 The arrival point of this path repeats from the start the entire itinerary by way of twenty-five blank cards, which in turn reproduce the concentric dynamic with another twenty-five modules applied to the central unit. The circular nature of the path is enhanced by the title, which refers to Ulysses' mythical homeland.
The same theme was developed in two subsequent variants, made in 1976 (GPO-0334) and in 1979 (GPO-0410), respectively.
1 The anthology of works reproduces Disegno geometrico, 1960 (GPO-0001), Senza titolo, 1961 (GPO-0011), Senza titolo, 1962 (GPO-0019), Senza titolo, 1962 (GPO-0017), Dear Visitor, 1963 (GPO-0038), 1421965, 1965 (GPO-0076), Ut-op, 1966 (GPO-0094), Ex acto, 1967 (GPO-0133), Morir / Mourir / To Die, 1967 (GPO-0128), Titolo, 1968 (GPO-0147), Lo studio, 1968 (GPO-0156), Poussin, che indica gli antichi come esempio fondamentale, 1968 (GPO-0153), Saffo (II), 1968 (GPO-0160), Quattro immagini uguali, 1969 (GPO-0194), Di un quadro del 1961, 1969 (GPO-0181), Apoteosi di Omero, 1970-71 (GPO-0224), Souvenir (II), 1971 (GPO-0219), Honfleur, 1971 (GPO-0208), Nove quadri datati dal 1967 al 1971 visti in prospettiva, 1972 (GPO-0233), “Elegia” in una scena di duello, 1972 (GPO-0236), Idem II (regesto delle opere come motivo a linee fosforescenti), 1972-73 (GPO-0245), and, lastly, three works on paper: Studio per “Idem (III)”, 1973 (GPC-0278), Senza titolo, 1973 (GPC-0245) and Senza titolo, 1974 (GPC-0310).
| 1986 | New York, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Alighiero Boetti, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Michelangelo Pistoletto, 8-29 March 1986. |
| 2002 | New York, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Arte Povera, 16 February - 16 March. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. “Tutto qui”, exhibition catalogue, Ravenna, Pinacoteca Comunale, Loggetta Lombardesca (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1985), repr. no. 27 (incompletely dated “1975”). |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 191 (incompletely dated “1975”). |
| • | F. Poli, “Note di lettura”, in Id., Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), p. 38, 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), p. 61, not repr. |
| • | D. Sung, “Arte per la vita”, in Case da abitare 48 (Turin), June, 2001, col. repr. p. 86 (installation view at the gallery-cum-house of Christian Stein, Turin). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 319 p. 328 (incompletely dated “1975”), repr. |
| • | B. Yasar, “‘Hypothesis for an Exhibition’”, in “Hypothesis for an Exhibition”, exhibition catalogue, New York, Dominique Lévy Gallery, 2014, pp. 57, 74, repr. pp. 109-111 (incompletely dated “1975”). |
