L’Indifférent, 1988
GPO-0619
Framed colour photo print, easels, stage costume, sheets of drawing paper
Framed photo print 126 x 95 cm, overall dimensions 238 x 244 x 270 cm
Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble
Acquired in 1988, inventory no. MG 4271
The framed photograph mounted inside a golden frame and set upside down on an easel reproduces Jean-Antoine Watteau's L’Indifférent (1717), while a second easel, arranged across it as though it were held by the figure, bears a golden costume that drops down to the ground. The eighteenth-century actor, in addition to "keeping" the easel in precarious balance, also proves his virtuosic skill with several blank sheets of paper, tucked beneath the frame and trimmed just enough to make them look as though they were a part of the perspective of the painting. Outside the space of the representation the sheets of drawing paper strewn about on the floor preserve their proper "weight".
The figure of the Indifférent is meant to recall an actor-artificer who, indifferent to his position, causes the easel to rotate or, on the contrary, is overcome by the easel's rotation.
The same theme was developed in two subsequent variants, one of which made in the same year (GPO-0619), the other in 1992 (GPO-0691).
Jean-Antoine Watteau, L’Indifférent, 1716, oil on wood, 25 x 19 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris; reproduction from L’opera completa di Watteau. Classici dell’arte 21 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1968), plate XI.
| 1988 | Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble, Jean Le Gac, Richard Paul Lohse, Giulio Paolini. Célébration du Bicentenaire de la Révolution en Dauphiné, 11 June - 5 September, col. repr. n. pag., entry by H. Vincent. |
| 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, col. repr. no. 23. |
| 1997 | Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble, Collections contemporaines 1950-1995, 3 July • 8 September, no catalogue. |
| 2002-03 | Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble, Repères 1960-1990: les collections du Musée de Grenoble, 1 November 2002 - 5 February 2003, no catalogue. |
| 2008-09 | Vizille, Musée de la Révolution française, Vingt ans après le bicentenaire de la révolution en dauphiné, Honegger, Le Gac, Lohse, Paolini, quatres artistes contemporains au service d’une célébration (1986-1988), 27 June 2008 - 1 June 2009, col. repr. in the exhibition magazine p. 2. |
| • | F. Poli, “Note di lettura”, in Id., Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), p. 34, col. repr. no. 135; 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. 57. |
| • | M. Nuridsany, La commande publique (Paris: Ministère de la Culture, de la Communication et des Grands Travaux, 1991), col. repr. n. pag. |
| • | A. Coulange, Giulio Paolini. Carnets de la commande publique (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 1997), note by G. Paolini p. 56, col. repr. p. 57 (erroneously dated “1989”). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, op. cit. (Ostfildern-Ruit: 1998), repr. p. 26. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. L’ora X, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Fondazione Querini Stampalia (Prato: Gli Ori, 2004), repr. p. 91. |
| • | Musée de Grenoble. Guide des Collections. XXe-XXIe siècles, edited by G. Tosatto (Lyon: Fage Éditions, 2015), p. 264 (entry by V. Lagier), col. repr. p. 265. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 619 p. 636, col. repr. |
| • | Italia moderna. La collection d’art moderne et contemporain italien du Musée de Grenoble (Grenoble-Paris: Musée de Grenoble and In fine éditions d’art, 2020), entry by S. Bernard p. 85, col. repr. p. 86. |
| • | Paolini. I Grandi illustrati del Corriere della Sera. Arte contemporanea – I protagonisti 8, edited by F. Gualdoni (Milan: RCS MediaGroup S.p.a., 2022), p. 66, col. repr. p. 67. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., exhibition catalogue, Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno (Alba: Fondazione Mancini Carini, 2022), repr. pp. 158-159 (exhibition view Rome 1988). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 206 (exhibition view Rome 1988). |
| • | C.M. Peng, “Résonances picturales de Watteau du XIXe au début du XXIe siècle: échos des chinoiseries, des scènes galantes et d'une ‘grâce moderne’”, in EditionOpen Book, online platform for books in the Social Sciences and Humanities, 23 June 2024. |
