Nove studi per “Gli uni e gli altri”, 2010
GPO-1112
Nine studies for “Gli uni e gli altri”
Pencil and collage on paper
Nine framed parts 31 x 31 cm each, overall dimensions 97 x 97 cm
Signed, titled, and described on the verso of the ninth element, centre: “Giulio Paolini / Nove studi per “Gli uni e gli altri”, già esposti / al Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma nell’anno 2010.”
Private collection
The nine elements placed close together so that they form a “picture” made up of 3 x 3 units have as a common denominator a circular motif inscribed inside a square. Each one of the elements features a cosmic image (planet, nebula, orbital diagram) and – except for elements 3 and 8 – the face of a clock. The changing combinations of round shapes also alternate with the inversion of a dark figure against a light one, and vice versa.
Overall, the game of staggered circles and squares and the prevalently off-centre position of the round shapes suggests the search for a balancing point, evoked in a broad sense by the celestial iconography, deemed by Paolini to be the ineffable model of perfection and fulfilment.
The autograph inscriptions on the verso of the last sheet tell us that originally seven of the nine elements were part of the work Gli uni e gli altri (L’enigma dell’ora), 2010 (GPO-0990), subsequently dismantled.
• Image of the timepiece from Samuel Abraham Goudsmit, Robert Clairborne, Quarta dimensione: tempo (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1967), p. 8 (”L’ora ufficiale americana”).
• Images of the monograms from Frantisek Subert, Irah Subertova-Kucerova, I monogrammi dei pittori dal XV al XVII secolo (La Spezia: Fratelli Melita, 1990).
