Et in Arcadia ego, 2023
GPO-1160
Pencil and collage on paper, pencil on wall
Two framed parts 78.5 x 54.5 cm each, central framed part 78.5 x 51 cm, overall dimensions 142 x 238 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso of the third element, centre: “ “Et in Arcadia ego” / Giulio Paolini / 2023”
Private collection
“The triptych features, at the centre, a snapshot that portrays the author holding an image of the diver from the famous Tomb of the Diver from Paestum, caught in the process of ‘diving into painting’, symbolized by the photographic fragments of pictorial details placed at the lower edge of the sheet. In the background a burst of rectangles extending across the wall amplify the central scene. As the memento mori in the title, Et in Arcadia ego (Even in Arcadia I am to be found) reminds us, the artist, immersed in the triumphant fall of the material of art, identifies his Arcadia in the creation of the work”.1
1 G. Paolini in conversation with B. Della Casa, 14 October 2023.
• Tomba del Tuffatore, 5th century BC, detached fresco, Museo archeologico nazionale, Paestum.
• Portrait of Giulio Paolini in his studio taken by Paola Ghirotti, 2022.
• Fragments: image of the palette of Édouard Manet.
• Title from Nicolas Poussin, Et in Arcadia ego, 1627, oil on canvas, 101 x 82 cm, Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth House, Bakewell.
| 2023-24 | Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Achille Forti, Giulio Paolini. Et in Arcadia Ego, 15 October 2023 - 25 August 2024, col. repr. pp. 40-41, 43 (detail), text by C. Riva pp. 40-42. |
| • | G. Paolini, “Et in Arcadia ego”, in Giulio Paolini. Et in Arcadia ego, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Achille Forti (Imola: Manfredi Edizioni, 2024), p. 29. |
