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Orfeo, 1988
GPO-0623
Orpheus
Two whole plaster casts and one fractured plaster cast, white plinth
Plinth 100 x 70 x 70 cm, overall dimensions 156 x 70 x 70 cm
The work was executed in a six numbered editions plus one unnumbered edition.
| 1/6 | SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen |
| 2/6 | Present whereabouts unknown |
| 3/6 | AGO Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto |
| 4/6 | EFG Art Collection |
| 5/6 | Belgacom Art, Brussels |
| 6/6 | Private collection, Trento |
| N.n. | Berlingieri Collection |
| 1/6 | Inventory no. 3020 |
| 3/6 | Gift of Ydessa Hendeles, 2009, inventory no. 2010/61 |
| 4/6 | Acquired in 2002, inventory no. AC000044 |
| 5/6 | Acquired in 1998, inventory no. PAO01 |
Two identical plaster casts of the bust of the Aurora by Michelangelo are arranged one up against the other so that each of them turns to look at itself in the act of turning.
The work alludes to the Greek myth of Orpheus, in which the passion that drove the hero to turn and look at his beloved Eurydice, proved to be fatal: the fragments of a third cast, in part held between the two faces and in part fallen and scattered all around, allude to the crumbling and loss of the object of desire as soon as the gaze turns to see it.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Aurora, 1524-27, marble, 155 x 180 cm, Basilica of San Lorenzo, New Sacristy, Florence.
| 1988 | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Anselmo, Bianchi, Boetti, Fabro, Kounellis, Paolini, Parmiggiani, Penone, Salvadori, Schütte, Zorio, from 15 October. |
| 1988 | Montreal, Galerie René Blouin, Fabro, Kounellis, Paolini, 22 October - 19 November; edition 3/6. |
| 1989 | Milan, Galleria Christian Stein, Giovanni Anselmo, Jannis Kounellis, Gilberto Zorio, Giuseppe Penone, Giulio Paolini, June. |
| 1992 | Rome, Planita Studio d’Arte, Mario Airò, Lili Dujourie, Irene Fortuyn/O’Brien, Rodney Graham, Giulio Paolini, Renny Tait (as part of the event titled Tridente Sette, Roma 1992. Mediterranea. Luci colori culture del Mediterraneo), March, p. 99, repr.; edition 6/6. |
| 2010-11 | Sindelfingen, SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, Zero - ∝, 13 June 2010 - 21 January 2011, not repr.; edition 1/6. |
| 2014-15 | Rome, Istituto Svizzero, Allegro giusto. Works from BSI Art Collection, 16 October 2014 - 20 June 2015, repr. in the exhibition brochure; edition 4/6. |
| 2016-17 | Sindelfingen, SCHAUWERK, SPLIT – Spiegel. Licht. Reflexion, 30 October 2016 - 3 October 2017, repr. pp. 35, 41 (exhibition views), 142, entry by A. Sharma-Weigold pp. 141-142; edition 1/6. |
| • | E. Cappuccio, “L’opera e la sua aura. Editoriale”, in Tema Celeste 22-23 (Syracuse), October-December, 1989, col. repr. p. 23; international edition: 24, January-March, 1990, col. repr. p. 35. |
| • | P. Derossi, “Un’architettura per raccontare”, in Ottagono 94, March, 1990, repr. pp. 87, 88 (installation view at Ristorante Biffi Scala, Milan 1988). |
| • | La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée and Art Édition, 1992), repr. p. 193, catalogue entry p. 295. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), col. repr. p. 284. |
| • | M. Unterdörfer, Die Rezeption der Antike in der Postmoderne: der Gipsabguss in der italienischen Kunst der siebziger und achtziger Jahre (Weimar: VDG Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 1998), pp. 177-178, cat. no. 63 p. 146, not repr. |
| • | B. Corà, “Come non detto, ma visto”, in Giulio Paolini, Mimmo Paladino (Lugano: BSI SA, 2000), n. pag., col. repr. (installation view at BSI Art Collection, Milan). |
| • | Pietro Derossi. Per un’architettura narrativa: Architetture e progetti 1959-2000 (Milan: Skira editore, 2000), repr. pp. 151, 152 (installation view at Ristorante Biffi Scala, Milan 1988). |
| • | Oggi per domani. Cinque artisti contemporanei nella Collezione BSI, exhibition catalogue, Lugano, Museo Cantonale d’Arte (Milan: Skira editore, 2001), pp. 122-123 cat. no. 80 (with incorrect list of exhibitions; because ist was stolen prior to the exhibition it was not exhibited), repr. (plaster fragments erroneously installed). |
| • | Derossi Associati. Racconti di architettura, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Fondazione Merz (Milan: Skira editore, 2006), col. repr. p. 37 (installation view at Ristorante Biffi Scala, Milan 1988). |
| • | The Belgacom Art Collection 1996-2006 (Brussels: Belgacom Art, 2006), col. repr. p. 52 (installation view at Belgacom Collection, Brussels), cited in the list of works from the collection p. 195 (with incomplete dimensions). |
| • | Giulio Paolini, brochure, Verona, Studio La Città, 2008, repr. (reprint of the 2007 version, with reproduction of Orfeo). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 623 p. 641, col. repr. |
| • | Studio La Città. Art 39 Basel 4-8.06.08, catalogue published on the occasion of Art Basel Fair, 2008, repr. |
Entry by Maddalena Disch, 15/05/2026
