Tableau vivant, 1985
GPO-0558
Photo emulsion on canvas, clothing, plexiglas plinth
Canvas 40 x 60 cm, plinth 100 x 40 x 60 cm
Mario Pieroni Collection, Rome
A photographic canvas, which overprints various negative images of the artist's previous exhibitions, is arranged so that it is staggered on the surface of a plexiglas plinth, while on the floor is a dishevelled men’s ceremonial outfit that is partially held down underneath the plinth.
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.
| 1986 | Brussels, Galerie Albert Baronian, Giulio Paolini. Tableau vivant, from 13 February. |
| 1988-89 | Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Giulio Paolini, 24 November 1988 - 26 February 1989, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 95, not repr. |
| 1990 | Palermo, Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana, Totalnovo, 26 January - 2 March, col. repr. p. 83 (exhibition view Rome 1988-89). |
| 2009 | Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, booth 06: on the occasion of the participation in the Fiera d’Arte Contemporanea in Rome titled The Road to Contemporary Art, RAM radioartemobile hosted a project by Teatr’Arteria, which included the presentation of some of the works in the RAM Collection; documentation in the RAM Newsletter January-April, 2009, p. 3, repr. (exhibition view). |
| • | 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. |
| • | Galerie Albert Baronian in ICC, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, ICC Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, 1988, repr. p. 7 (exhibition view Brussels 1986). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Il “Teatro” dell’opera, exhibition catalogue, Pesaro, Galleria Franca Mancini (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1991), repr. p. 31. |
| • | 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. 281 (erroneously dated “1985-87”). |
| • | C. Christov-Bakargiev, Arte Povera (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999), col. repr. p. 139 (exhibition view Rome 1988-89). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 558 p. 568, col. repr. |
| • | Nothing is permanent. Albert Baronian, profession: galeriste, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, La Centrale électrique (Brussels: Centre d’Art Contemporain de la Ville de Bruxelles, 2009), repr. n. pag. (exhibition view Brussels 1986). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. pp. 206-207 (exhibition view Rome 1988). |
