Quadri d’autore, 2006

Two plexiglas cases one atop the other contain images and objects inherent to the iconography of the artist’s studio. At the very top of the structure a folded wooden bookstand contains eight reproductions of ancient and modern artists’ studios, as well as a work on paper by Paolini and the book by Henry James Stories of Writers and Artists.1 In the middle area sixteen small canvases of various sizes seen from either the recto or the verso are scattered about on two larger primed canvases that overlap so that they are staggered (one canvas is reversed and square, while the other is visible from the recto and rectangular). Placed in a central position is a chair, turned towards the profile portrait of Henry James, held, together with the bound cover of the book Stories of Writers and Artists, inside the slipcase for this same book. The cover features the image of an artist’s studio and, in the foreground, a chair and a blank canvas on an easel. This photographic subject is copied from life with a primed canvas propped up on an easel, located behind the portrait of Henry James. This assemblage of elements is installed on a drawing with a grid, alluding to the checkerboard on which the artist, in his studio, challenges himself in the endgame without surrendering to the evidence that the winning picture is none other than the search for its own possibility of determination.2 On the floor, a colour photograph of Paolini’s studio3 – with several primed canvases propped up against the wall, some of which seen from the recto, others from the verso – overlaps a sheet of white drawing paper.
In the artist’s own words: “Quadri d’autore evokes the space of the studio, the place where the artist takes on (or loses) his own identity as an author, thus handing over the primary, original and absolute value to the work itself, and attributing to himself the secondary role of actor, or dresser, in the inexhaustible and grandiose (but silent) performance of Art History”.4

1 For his work the artist used the Italian edition of the book entitled Henry James. Racconti di artisti, edited by F.O. Matthiessen (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2005). Among the eight photographic reproductions is the image of an anonymous studio, taken from the October 1921 issue of the magazine Emporium, previously used for Museo, 1970-73 (GPO-0253). The work on paper Studio per ÒQuadranteÓ, 2002 (GPC-1006) is related to the piece Quadrante produced for the artist’s solo show at the Atelier del Bosco di Villa Medici in Rome in 2002.
2 The checkerboard, prevalently associated with various recto/verso canvases considered to be interchangeable game pieces, is a recurring motif in Paolini’s oeuvre (see Abat-jour (Giochi proibiti), 1986, GPO-0567; Essere o non essere, 1995, GPO-0757; Ultimo modello, 1992-2005, GPO-0704; Photofinish, 1993-94, GPO-0735; Scena muta (stanza dell’autore), 1998-99, GPO-0826).
3 The photograph taken by Paolo Mussat Sartor appears in various works by Paolini beginning with Synopsis, 1998 (GPO-0800).
4 G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. Fuori programma, exhibition catalogue, Bergamo, GAMeC Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2006), p. 42.