Aula di disegno (Happy Days), 2006
GPO-0925
Drawing Classroom (Happy Days)
Photo print, plexiglas sheets, black pencil, pencil and collage on wall, steel cable
Two plexiglas sheets 30 x 40 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Dismantled work
• 2006, Bergamo, GAMeC: the presentation of the work is integrated, on the opposite wall, by the installation of Novero, 1998 (GPO-0825) a “picture gallery” of works on paper by the artist with allusions to drawing. These freely overlap a regular pattern of rectangles outlined on the wall.
• 2009, Zurich: the presentation of the work is matched by a symmetrical wall, located in another room, at the far end of the gallery, arranged with a picture gallery of works on paper focused on the theme of drawing and the draughtsman (or with details from drawings); on the left page the register is dated “9.10.2009”.
• 2014, Porto Alegre: as part of the exhibition on the theme of drawing, the work is accompanied by other works on paper that involve the theme of drawing.
• 2015-16, Turin: with no other intervention or specific relationship with the theme of drawing.
A plexiglas sheet suspended at the viewer’s eye level, just slightly away from the wall, is pierced at the centre by a black pencil that is turned towards the image held on the wall by another transparent sheet. The image reproduces an enlarged detail from a drawing by Sol LeWitt, taken from a card sent to Paolini wishing him “Happy Days in ’06”, hence the subtitle of the work. On the wall the perspective drawing features the view of a “drawing classroom”, with several tables in the foreground. Applied to the wall in the area corresponding to the table in the middle is a photographic reproduction of a class register featuring in autograph calligraphy the opening date of the specific exhibition, followed by the title of the work and the author’s signature.
Against the virtual background of the drawn classroom, the sheet with the pencil represents the only material trace, almost an apparition “in person” of Drawing. The pencil turned in the direction of LeWitt’s drawing filled with doodling alludes to the gesture of drawing itself, that is, to the soul (or the essence) of drawing. In other words, in the here-and-now of the exhibition event (evoked by the date on the register), the summoning to the “drawing classroom” questions the idea of drawing itself.
Postcard from Sol LeWitt to Giulio Paolini, December 2005.
| 2006 | Bergamo, GAMeC Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Giulio Paolini. Fuori programma, 6 April - 16 July, col. repr. pp. 76-79 (exhibition view), referred to in the text by G. Di Pietrantonio p. 16. |
| 2009 | Zurich, Annemarie Verna Galerie, Giulio Paolini. Aula di disegno (Happy Days), 9 October - 28 November. |
| 2014 | Porto Alegre (Brasil), Fundação Iberê Camargo, Limites Sem Limites. Desenhos e Traços da arte povera, 22 August - 2 November, col. repr. p. 38 (exhibition view Zurich 2009), referred to in the text by G. Maraniello p. 105. |
| 2015-16 | Turin, Bookshop Corraini Lingotto, 5 November 2015 - January 2016, no catalogue. |
| • | G. Gazzaneo, “Paolini, pensieri allo specchio”, in Luoghi dell'infinito 10, no. 97 (Milan), June, 2006, col. repr. p. 59 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006). |
| • | F. Boràgina, “D come Disegno – Giulio Paolini”, in Boîte 01, no. 03 (Lissone), autumn, 2009, n. pag., col. repr. n. pag. (exhibition view Bergamo 2006). |
| • | F. Guzzetti, “D come disegno. Della regola e dell’invenzione”, in Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), pp. 68-69, col. repr. pp. 68, 247 (exhibition views Bergamo 2006). |
