Tableau vivant, 1985
GPO-0552
Photo emulsion on canvas, clothing, plexiglas plinth
Canvas 40 x 60 cm, plinth 130 x 40 x 40 cm
Private collection
• 1985, Ravenna, Loggetta Lombardesca: installation on a long and narrow white base, with the canvas placed on top of the dishevelled ceremonial attire dropping down along the sides.
• 1989, Brescia, Galleria Massimo Minini: as part of the installation made up of several works for the solo exhibition entitled “L’ospite”, the canvas was arranged vertically against a leg of the table that served as a support for the works on display, on the trousers laid out, with the waistcoat partially covering it; the shirt and tail-coat were not included.
• In 2005, on the occasion of the photographic documentation of the work for the Catalogue Raisonné, the artist suggested a new installation for the Nieri collection, with components set up on a plexiglas plinth: the shirt and trousers were blocked against the wall so that they dropped down along one side of the plinth, while the waistcoat was partially laid down on the canvas on the ground.
A photographic canvas, which overprints various negative images of the artist's previous exhibitions, is placed on the ground, in a vertical position, at the foot of a plexiglas plinth standing against a wall. Men's ceremonial attire drops down dishevelled along the sides of the plinth (the shirt on top of the plinth and the trousers are blocked against the wall; the waistcoat is partially laid down on the canvas on the ground).
Whereas, akin to several works from the early 1980s, the costume refers to the author – who has exited the scene to await the start of the performance in the seating area – the undecipherable clues on the canvas express the echo of previous “missed appointments” with the presumed manifestation of a vision, in the here-and-now of the exhibition.
In the words of the artist, the title – which notoriously designates a type of scenic representation in which one or more actors, immobile and silent, like in a 'tableau vivant', recreate a scene or a famous image – "underlies a paradox, since the work does not stage any representation ‘from life’, but, on the contrary, thanks to the abandoned costume and the indistinct traces on the canvas, alludes to something that is no longer visible or may even have been forgotten".1
The work is part of a series of three variants from the same year, which are distinguished by the photo stills reproduced on the canvas and by the way the components were mounted with respect to the plinth (GPO-0544, GPO-0552, GPO-0558).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2004), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 544 p. 554.
| 1985 | Ravenna, Pinacoteca Comunale, Loggetta Lombardesca, Giulio Paolini. Tutto qui, 15 June - 22 September, not repr. |
| 1989 | Brescia, Galleria Massimo Minini, Giulio Paolini. L’ospite, from 7 October. |
| 2003 | Merano, Kunst Meran im Haus der Sparkasse / Merano arte edificio Cassa di Risparmio, Meta.fisica: arte e filosofia da De Chirico all’Arte concettuale / Kunst und Philosophie von de Chirico bis zur Konzeptkunst, 11 September 2003 - 6 January 2004, col. repr. p. 158 (incorrect installation). |
| 2016 | Pisa, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale, Sala degli Arazzi, Dialoghi, 30 April - 30 May, with a note by the artist n. pag. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2004), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 544 p. 554. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Il “Teatro” dell’opera, exhibition catalogue, Pesaro, Galleria Franca Mancini (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1991), col. repr. p. 47 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | Arte moderna. L’arte contemporanea dal secondo dopoguerra ad oggi, vol. 28 (Milan: Giorgio Mondadori & Associati editori, 1993), col. repr. n. pag. (erroneously installed). |
| • | L’arte attuale, exhibition catalogue, Castelfranco Veneto, Casa del Giorgione (Brescia: Galleria Massimo Minini, 1995), col. repr. p. 34 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | Arte contemporanea internazionale. Una collezione locale, Gallarate (Cassano Magnago: Crespi Editore, 1997), col. repr. p. 94 (erroneously installed). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 136 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Premio Internazionale Koinè 2000 alla carriera, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Palazzo Forti (Milan: Electa, 2001), repr. p. 56 (exhibition view Brescia 1989). |
| • | A. Zevi, Peripezie del dopoguerra nell’arte italiana (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005), p. 365, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 552 p. 561, col. repr. |
