Ida e Alessandra, 1984
GPO-0534
Ida and Alessandra
Pencil, red pencil and collage on paper
Two framed parts 70 x 50 cm each, overall dimensions 70 x 102 cm
Left part: Alessandra Mammì Collection, Rome
Right part: present whereabouts unknown
The diagonals that square the surface of the two elements placed at short intervals converge in the gaze of the figure in the foreground, and at the same time define the vanishing point of a room. At the rear of the virtual room the diagonals marked in red pencil also reiterate the squaring of Disegno geometrico, 1960 (GPO-0001), which the two figures in coat-tails seem to "hold in tension". The double portrait announced in the title – the two names refer to Ida Panicelli and Alessandra Mammì – is contradicted by the presence of a single figure, divided, however, between the two elements that are close together.
• Female figure from Thomas Hope, Costumes of the Greeks and Romans (New York: Dover Publications, 1962), plate 243 (“Roman empress”).
• Male figure from Antonio Sandre, Il costume nei tempi (Turin: Scuola Taglio Moderno, 1961), p. 268, fig. 299 (”Da ‘Minister’s Gazette of fashions’, 1925-30”), with the transformation of the original jacket into a tailcoat.
| 1985 | Rome, Galleria Pieroni, Giulio Paolini. Giochi d’acqua, from 15 February. |
| • | Mater dulcissima, exhibition catalogue, Syracuse, Chiesa dei Cavalieri di Malta (Syracuse: Edizioni Tema Celeste, 1986), repr. no. 13 pp. 30-31. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 232. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 50. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 534 p. 546, repr. |
