L’Indifférent, 1988
GPO-0617
Photo emulsion on canvas, easels, stage costume
Canvas 120 x 90 cm
Dismantled work
The photographic canvas in black and white set upside down on an easel reproduces L’Indifférent (1717) by Jean-Antoine Watteau, while a second easel, arranged across it as though it were held by the figure, bears a reddish costume (like the cloak worn by the eighteenth-century actor) that drops down to the ground.
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 later 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 | Zurich, Galerie Annemarie Verna, Giulio Paolini. Sotto le stelle, 22 April - 4 June. |
| 1997 | Zurich, Galerie Annemarie Verna, About context, 16 September - 23 November. |
| • | M. Nuridsany, La commande publique. Enjeux-Culture (n.p. [Paris]: Ministère de la Culture, de la Communication et des Grands Travaux, 1991), col. repr. n. pag. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 617 p. 633, col. repr. |
